Her Two Lives
by TwistingOfTheVines
Summary: Raychel Garretson is great friends with Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and ROn Weasley, but she is a Slytherin. She tells Draco she pretends to be their friend to get information when it's quite the opposite. This is the story of Harry Potter with twists
1. The Train Ride

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the character from Harry Potter. I own my original characters. **_By the way, I might make professors/ characters stray from their norm in the books by Rowling...but this is my story, so I may. Another thing- I will switch the P.O.V.'s between characters, but it will mostly be between the trio and the main OC that I insert I also will be writing in narrative form as well. If I use a characters' P.O.V., I will be sure to let you know. Let the fun begin: By the way, I might not get the exact words from the book and what not, but still, that sort of makes it more of my writing that J.K's._

I am starting this when Harry gets on the Hogwarts Express.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" Harry looked up startled for a second, and then grinned to the ginger haired boy.

"Go ahead." Harry responded. Harry continued looking out the window, as he was doing before the boy asked. It wasn't really awkward, but there was not too much to say.

"Are you really…you know…Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out.

"Yes" Harry smiled back politely.

"And you have the scar?" Ron asked inquisitively. Harry pulled his hair back to show the thin, lighting shaped scar, etched upon his forehead. For a little they enjoyed a comfortable silence, every once in a while looking up, and catching each others eyes, and flashing a grin.

A witch came by with a trolley full of snacks, and asked at the doorway, "Hungry for lunch, dears?" Harry, who was hungry leapt up to inspect what they had, and quickly glanced at Ron who muttered something about having sandwiches with a dark look at his lumpy package of corned beef and bread.

Harry never had anyone to share with so he took the lot, eager to try out everything, being as they had a dearth of Muggle sweets familiar to him.

Meanwhile down the train, a girl sat in a compartment with Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle. At first the compartment was hers and hers alone. She hadn't met any other witch or wizard that was going to Hogwarts before. Her family was a pureblood wizarding family, but friends of her parents had moved to America before when You-Know-Who started to get stronger. Her family was about to, but, as her parents told her, he fell to a one year old baby named Harry Potter.

When her parents were in Hogwarts, her mother Holly Baker Garretson and her father Tyler Garretson were in Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, respectively. Her mother had black hair and the light tan complexion that her daughter had inherited. She inherited her father's sapphire blue eyes and oval shape of her face. Her slightly wavy hair went just past her chin, and hovered above her shoulders—she had to cut her hair because the bottoms got burnt when she leaned in over her father's cauldron, and her hair got too close to the flame. Her name was Raychel Noelle Garretson. Noelle was for her great grandmother Noelle Baker, whom her mother was close to. Her father ran a small franchise of apothecaries and her mother worked as an Obliviator in the Ministry of Magic.

When the three boys came in without even asking, she got a book from her trunk, and started to read. Curious by nature, Raychel could not help but overhear their conversation; apparently Harry Potter was on the train, because Draco Malfoy was excited about having that knowledge.

The conversation then switched to the subject of Draco Malfoy. He seemed very confident to Raychel. It was hard for Raychel to stay focused on her book, so she wearily gave up. After closing her book, she quietly and politely asked their pardon while she got, or attempted to get, her trunk down to put the book back in. There was not much room to get her feet in a stable stance with Goyle and Crabbe taking up the whole bench of that compartment. She moved and jiggled the trunk bit by bit, and then it gave too much.

"Oh no! Watch it!" Malfoy, obviously having the quickest reactions and a slightly taller, advantageous height, grabbed the trunk.

"Crabbe," he ordered," Grab the other end when I pull it out! Err, You," he looked at Raychel, not knowing her name," move out of the way." It was not in the same demanding tone as it was for Crabbe which was good for him, because she couldn't stand it when people who didn't have authority boss her around.

The two boys lowered the trunk to the bottom. It was a wonder that they didn't knock over her owl cage. Inside was a pewter grey owl that had dark brown eyes, that she had dubbed Sebastian. The owl's cage however got a little bumped; in response the owl ruffled its feathers and gave a slight hoot.

"Thank you so much, uh—"

"Malfoy. Draco Malfoy. He extended his hand, which she shook. She did not want to use his name because that would mean she was listening to his conversation, so she thought it best to be introduced.

"My name is Raychel Garretson."

"This is Crabbe and Goyle." He pointed carelessly over his shoulder.

Now, Raychel was integrated in the conversation, rather it was Malfoy interviewing her.

"Are you're family pureblood? Ever play Quidditch? What's your team?" He ejected a barrage of questions which she all answered.

"Yes. Yes. I am a fan of the Scottish team; it was the first game I ever went to." So on she answered questions to his interview.

"I suspect we're getting nearer to the school. I suppose we should be getting into our robes." Raychel suggested.

"We want to go see if the rumors are true about Harry Potter being on the train. We'll do that later. Do you want to tag along? Malfoy asked.

"I might meet up with you later; I'm going to get changed." She replied.

Meanwhile, Ron and Harry were interrupted by Neville Longbottom. He lost his toad, and was trying to find it.

Ron was muttering in annoyance about her pompous manner when the door opened yet again.

"So it _is_ true that the famous Harry Potter is on the train. The name's Draco Malfoy, we've met before in Diagon Alley." He extended his hand and said," You don't want to be caught riff raff like this. Red hair, second hand robes. He must be a Weasley; not the sort of person that _you_ should be friends with. I can help you there." He said with a swagger.

"I think I can manage on my own, thanks." Replied Harry coolly.

Goyle reached for a Chocolate Frog but pulled his hand back, with an attachment on it. Ron's rat, that they had been trying to change its fur color, had bitten Goyle. He shook it off and the rat flew into the window, and lay still. The three boys left.

In the corridor, Raychel made her way in the direction she saw Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle go in; they were making their way back, Draco looking pissed and he was muttering to the other two.

"Did you find him?" she had asked tentatively.

"Yeah, he was back in that car. Nothing exciting." Draco said coming to a full stop to speak to her.

"Oh well, it's always worth it." And with that, Raychel walked on looking for Harry Potter's compartment.

She found it with a bushy haired girl in the doorway, and a short, round faced boy standing eagerly behind her. They seemed to be finished with their business, and left the compartment. She nearly bumped into Raychel, and quickly apologized.

"Hi, I'm Hermione Granger. This is Neville Longbottom. He lost his toad, Trevor. Have you seen it?" She said rather hastily.

"Hello, Hermione, Neville. My name is Raychel Garretson, and no I have not seen a toad.

"Oh, but if you do, I'm in that compartment with Neville here; let me know!" she said.

Raychel walked to the compartment Hermione was near, and she peered inside. There was a dark haired boy and a ginger haired boy. Raychel read about Harry in various wizarding books, but wouldn't know what he looked like, as no pictures were provided. She would just have to go in and ask…

**This was a very long chapter. Sorry about that…unless you like it. Read and rate please, and message me on if you like it. I decided mid chapter one that I will use the books as a basis of my story instead, and make other events as well, including what happened in the book. Hope you enjoyed.**


	2. Sorting

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, but I own Raychel, Holly and Tyler Garretson. **

"I'm so sorry to interrupt you guys," said Raychel to the boys, who seemed to be swimming in Chocolate Frogs containers, most of which were empty, "But word is, that you're Harry Potter. I was wondering if that is true." Raychel said.

"Uh—Yeah, I am as a matter of fact." Harry responded sheepishly.

"I'm Ron Weasley." The red head interjected loudly.

"Hello Harry, Ron. My name is Raychel Garretson. Mind if I--er-- sit down for a bit?" she asked, not timidly so.

"Yeah, sure." Harry said politely.

"Are you guys nervous about the Sorting? I am sort of nervous." Raychel said, starting up a conversation.

" Yeah!" They said in unison.

"I just don't want to end up looking idiotic."

They boys chuckled and agreed. They went on to talk about other things, and they learned about each other. When it started to get darker Amy said good bye and she departed to go back to the compartment she was in.

She got back in to see that once again, Draco was in full conversation with Crabbe and Goyle. She walked in and Draco looked up, saw who it was and then went back to talking. The conversation seemed to have ended because he asked Raychel where she was.

"I saw Harry Potter." She said simply.

" Oh." And he left it at that, though it was obvious that he wanted to badmouth him in some way.

"Train stopped." Grunted Crabbe.

At the compartment of the door, Draco held it open for Raychel, upper class manners maybe, and then followed her to the exit of the train. That particular group dispersed, rather Raychel separated from them in the crowd.

"Firs' years this way!" called a towering, giant figure.

All first years followed him in the night, to the lake where dozens of boats bobbed gently in the water.

"No more'n five to a boat!" called the large figure who then introduced himself as Hagrid, the keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts.

Harry had gotten into the boat with Hagrid and Ron and another person. Malfoy, Goyle, and Crabbe had their own boat. Raychel was in a boat with Hermione, Neville, and two other girls.

The two boats started to move on their own accord. When the castle came into sight, there were many "Ooh's and aah's". It was a large brightly lit castle.

When the boats came to their destination, the first years all got out of the boats and Neville had found his toad, Trevor. They were led into a corridor outside of the Great Hall, and were introduced to a middle aged, stern looking witch.

"I am Professor McGonagall, head of the Gryffindor house and Transfiguration teacher. In just a few moments, when the older students get situated, you will all be sorted into houses. For the next seven years they will be like your "family". Any thing that you do worthy of merit will earn you points—any rule breaking will lose your house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points wins the House Cup! For you future Gryffindors, I hope you will uphold the honor." Professor McGonagall said tersely.

When she left, nervous chatter broke out. Many heads turned about nervously, and Raychel and Harry shot each other a quick grin, but that fleeting moment was interrupted by many pearly figures floating above seeming to be in their own conversation. One looked down and greeted the new students, and then many of the others did. Then, some random student called out, "They're ghosts, they are!" and more banter broke out again. This was hushed because after the ghosts left, Professor McGonagall came in and led them to the Great Hall.

Hundred of students were already situated at tables in the hall, and they looked with interest at the students filing in. A tiny little man came in with a stool that had a hat perched on it and placed in where all could see. Then, without warning it broke into a song. It sang about the different houses and the qualities that were characteristic of each house.

Draco still had the confident demeanor as earlier, and Crabbe and Goyle just looked blank. Harry and Ron were in conversation. Hermione was again speaking at fast speeds about different things about Hogwarts. Raychel however was having an interior panic attack. She didn't feel brave, clever, cunning, or hard working at this moment. She thought of her parents. What if she wasn't in one of the houses they were in? How would they react?

Professor McGonagall coughed and the first years all closed their mouths. "When I call your name, you are to come up, sit on the stool and put the hat on. It shall announce the house you belong in and you shall sit down at the table of your house." She announced.

"Abbot, Hannah" A blonde girl went forward, and she became a Hufflepuff.

More names were called. Crabbe it turned out was a Slytherin. Still more names called until—

"Garretson, Raychel!" Raychel made her way through the crowd of students. Along the way she passed Harry and Ron and they both wished her luck…for what she didn't really know. _Good luck on not making a prat of yourself or something_! Raychel thought.

She sat on the stool and placed the hat on her head.

"Hmm," the hat whispered in her ear. "You've got a mind you do, but where to put you? You have wit and you're a quick learner, but it just doesn't seem to fit you…I know." The Sorting Hat finally said. Then there was another pause, and then, "Slytherin!" it yelled.

Raychel's heart must have stopped for a second. She was in neither of the houses her parents were in! She took off the hat, and saw Draco Malfoy give her thumbs up. She walked to the Slytherin table and they clapped for her. _Why?_ She thought. There were no familiar faces but that of Crabbe, so she sat across from him. He gave a grunt of approval and a yellow toothed smile. In her head she asked herself how her parents would react. The sorting went on.

Goyle next became a Slytherin and Hermione became a Gryffindor. Later on Draco became a Slytherin like he said he would. Raychel thought to herself how funny it would be if he became a Gryffindor. (Sounds like a fun fan fic:- ) Harry and Ron were sorted as Gryffindors.

Dumbledore got up to speak when the sorting was done. He greeted all students and announced the feast. There was so much food.

At the Gryffindor table Harry and Ron were deep in conversation with Ron's other brothers about the school.

Harry then asked Ron jokingly, "I didn't see that one coming. I never would have thought Malfoy was going to be in Slytherin."

Ron chuckled at this, but then said seriously, "My father told me that _his_ father was in close with You-Know-Who."

They talked about this in wonderment for a few moments, and then Harry asked, "Did you see that girl Raychel going there? She said her parents were from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor"

"Strange, huh?" was Ron's response, "I guess you can't really judge people from family"

They ate heartily and talked about other things.

Meanwhile Draco was leading a conversation at the Slytherin table.

"Like I said," he announced a little loudly and with conceit, "my family has been in Slytherin forever. I knew I'd be here."

Raychel responded to it with, "I didn't know I'd end up here." You can hear the lack of positive emotion in her voice.

"Well what are you complaining about, it's an honor!" Draco cried indignantly, as if she had slapped him across the face.

"Well, it's just that my mother was a Ravenclaw and my father was a Gryffindor." She paused, then, "I don't want them to be disappointed about me not being in any of their houses."

Draco looked at her somewhat sympathetically then said, 'Don't worry so much, you're in the best house anyway." And then the conversation went on to other things.

Back at the Gryffindor table, Harry was scanning the Professors Table when he met eyes with a black haired man. The man stared back with what seemed to be loathing. Then all of a sudden, Harry's scar prickled. But that was for a quick moment. Then Harry asked Ron's brother Percy who the teacher was and found out it was the Potion's master, Professor Snape.

Dumbledore stood and conversations ceased. The Headmaster than cheerfully gave announcements about what can't be used or done in the corridors. He warned people to not venture off into the Forbidden Forest or to Corridor on the third floor. When he finished, students were to follow the prefects to their respective common rooms.

Gryffindors and Ravenclaws went up the stairs as Hufflepuffs and Slytherins went towards the dungeons.

**Okay, this was another long one. I hope you enjoy, and please rate/review. I enjoy writing this, but please let me know what you think! **


	3. Why must we Separate!

**Disclaimer: J.K Rowling owns Harry Potter, not I! I own Raychel and her parents so far…**

_Hope you guys have enjoyed so far. It's a little boring at first, but I will try to skip to exciting parts. I don't think I'll skip months at a time though, unless it is summer._

It was a few weeks after the Sorting. Classes had gotten started, and the students were quickly set to work. Raychel had written to her parents and sent Sebastian with the letter the day after. They didn't seem to mind at all. They told her the only reason why it is associated with the Dark Arts more so than any other house was because He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named came from that house. They told her not to say that to anyone because not many knew that. They said it _did_ turn out good wizards though. That was a little more comforting that the first fact.

Harry and Ron were enjoying themselves. They quickly became best friends. Raychel approached them to greet them; she would have done earlier but she was into her schoolwork.

"Hey Harry! Hey Ron!" she greeted.

"Err, hi." Said Harry, looking utterly confused.

"What do you want?" Retorted Ron quite rudely.

"I wanted to say hello, but if that is a problem, I'll just go." Raychel came back with coolly, sensing Ron not wanting her around.

"You're a Slytherin. You hang out with Draco Malfoy," he spat Draco's name, "you're probably just here to gibe at us some."

Raychel looked positively flabbergasted. "Well for your information, that never crossed my mind. What does my being in Slytherin have to do with anything?" she inquired.

Harry just stared in awe at these transactions. "We're Gryffindor, and if you haven't noticed our houses do _not_ get along. If you need an example, look at last weeks Flying lesson. You saw what Malfoy did to Neville, and Harry!"

Quick to respond, Raychel made her input. "If you weren't paying attention, I played no part in that and I was concerned for Neville as well. And if from what I heard is true, that nice dive got Harry onto the Gryffindor Quidditch team." She had her voice slightly raised, which got the attention of her fellow Slytherin, Draco Malfoy.

"Well, well, well. You Gryffindors making trouble for a Slytherin?" he asked, his trademark smirk playing on his lips.

"No, Draco, I was just having a chat." She replied. She didn't mind him too much, but she found Draco to be very prying into other people's business.

Raychel walked away, with a quick pace to go to Herbology. It was good because it was with the Ravenclaws. People in _that_ house did not seem to mind that she was a Slytherin. That never really got through to her. Why it seemed like houses were barriers. Why can't everyone be friends? A minute after she had started to walk to Greenhouse Two, the bell rang. Harry and Ron made their way to Transfiguration.

"You know, she's really nice, you didn't need be so crude to her." Hermione scolded them.

"You know Harry, it gets very annoying having _her_ but in on our business!" Ron said in retaliation, though not to Hermione. She gave a "humph!" and walked haughtily away.

Hermione and Raychel had met the first day of classes in the library. They immediately clicked. It was like something waiting to happen; they talked about books, classes, everything.

That day, Professor McGonagall was lecturing them.

In Herbology, the Slytherins were learning how to pot a certain plant. It was quite specific. The pots needed to have only so much soil, and needed different amounts of water according to the day of the week. Throughout class, Draco insisted on doing a grand interview of Raychel.

"Why would you talk to Potter and Weasley anyway? They're Gryffindors and they're not of our class!" Draco quizzed, indignantly so.

"What exactly is "our class" Draco? And what does them being Gryffindors matter?! They're just as magical as we are! Enlighten me!" her voice rose once again. Professor Sprout warned to take points off if she spoke loudly and out of order again.

Draco smirked. "Yes, please Miss Garretson, please lower your voice," he scolded in a playful way. Our class is that we will grow to be powerful. They will not, especially with a background like Weasley's. He's dirt poor. And that is just how it is. They're like an alien race, Gryffindors—"

He was cut off by Raychel saying "Enough!" She was disgusted by it all. She wished she could change people's naïve outlook on things like that, but she was just an eleven year old girl.

Pansy Parkinson who was eying Draco all during class found the proper moment when he was done laughing about something with Goyle and Crabbe to talk to him. Raychel began to speak to Terry Boot and Amanda Baufield. They were listening to her conversation, if you could call it that with Draco, and agreed that it was a stupid thing to separate like that, but also said that nothing can be done. Raychel longed to be in Ravenclaw at this moment. She was annoyed with how she was treated by Ron, and she found Draco's ego about money and what not to be repulsive. The bell rang, and they went to the castle. Double Potions with Gryffindor next.

Raychel grew up around her father, a great potioneer. He ran apothecaries so people can get their potion ingredients at a good price. She came to school being the best at potions in her year. Hermione was good, but not at Raychel's level. That was one little thorn if you will, in Hermione's side, but other than that, the two got along.

As it is known, Snape favors Slytherins over all others, and there were two Slytherins that he seemed to favor especially. Yes, Raychel and Draco. He admired Raychel's potion making skills. Her work was flawless, or close to it. It was after class she went to Snape.

"Professor Snape, um, you have told me before that my work in potions was advanced for my age, and I feel that the stuff we do now is, um, quite basic—for me. I wondered if I could be moved into a higher year class of potions." She tried sounding as respectful as she could, which earned her a snigger from Draco who stood behind to see what she was doing.

"This is quite unorthodox, Miss Garretson. But I agree; you are far past this beginning level. I can talk to Professor Dumbledore to see what arrangements can be made. It is early in the year, so it might be able to be done, but of course, you would need to take some sort of aptitude test to see what year would be good to place you in." Snape told her, with a quick flash of a smile.

"What type of test, sir?" Raychel asked with a little apprehension. She was intelligent, but she did not thinks that a written test could show what she can do.

"I will ask you to create the hardest potion that is asked of each year. Also a written test on different things you should know. If I put you too far ahead, you could miss valuable lessons that might aid you in your O.W.L." he informed her.

"Well, can you see with Professor Dumbledore?" she pleaded.

"I will. Have a good night, Miss Garretson." Snape had bid her good bye, and did so to Draco.

"Think you're a hot shot, don't you?" Draco joked.

"I'm better than you." She replied coolly. She was still annoyed with his earlier comments.

"Hey, no need to get catty."

They went to the table to eat. Raychel finished quickly as did Hermione at the Gryffindor table. They met outside the Great Hall and chatted with each other up to the library.

**This one was shorter than the others. I tried to let you guys get a feel of Raychel's annoyance at the separation. I will get more into Ron and Harry soon. Please review. I hope you enjoyed so far.**


	4. Halloween

**Disclaimer: Ladies and gentleman this is the disclaimer! Woo, I love the Offspring. Anyway, I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters from the book series. I own any character in here that are not in the books. Let's go.**

A week later, Sebastian came at breakfast and dropped two letters neatly next to her glass of pumpkin juice.

The first one was addressed to her in emerald green ink. The letter said for her to go to professor Snape's room at 6:30 that night, and from there they will go to Professor Dumbledore's office and discuss her aptitude test. The next letter was from her father and mother. It read:

_Dear Raychel,_

_We received a letter from your Head of House about what you are trying to do. We wish you luck on getting in to an advanced class. We both know you will do well in whatever class you are put in. Just remember to study hard, honey._

_Love Mum and Dad,_

She smiled and put the letter down to her right. It was quickly snatched up by Draco and he said "awww" mockingly.

At the Gryffindor table Ron and Harry laughed heartily at Seamus, Dean, and Neville. Neville had attempted a spell that they learned the day before in Charms. It almost worked until Seamus was startled by the racing jug of pumpkin juice and made a movement into Dean who then bumped into Neville who, being quite jumpy, moved his wand, breaking the spell. The jug tipped at the abrupt stop and the juice spilled all over the three, on Dean the most.

That night Raychel made her way to Professor Snape's office. They then went together to Dumbledore's office.

"No student has ever asked to go into a higher year class before, as you know Miss Garretson." Dumbledore informed her, his eyes twinkling.

"Yes sir, I do. Professor Snape had told me." Raychel responded back, with respect.

"Ah. Professor Snape has told _me_ that you have a talent in Potions." Dumbledore said, and Rachel was not sure how to reply.

"Uh, my father, he owns many apothecaries. He loves Potions. I grew up around him making them, and sometimes," she chuckled, "when everyone was upstairs, I'd sneak down to where he keeps his cauldron and potion books, and make them. Some never worked for me, but sometimes I made them correctly. I made a few of my own potions as well."

"Ahh," Dumbledore said again, a smile playing on his lips. "Did they ever find out?" he asked,

"Yes, after a while. My father as not mad or anything; I think he was happy that I loved potions like he did." Raychel smiled.

"Well," Snape started, "You can do your test in an unused classroom. This weekend is when you will do it. Some potions need to stew overnight. You will have three cauldrons. It is a lot of work, but we will need to find out where to put you. If you have difficulty with any of the three potions, you can stop. This work is not mandatory or graded."

"Great, sir!" Raychel exclaimed, her blue eyes shining.

"Come to my office on Saturday morning after breakfast. I will show you where the room is, and you can go there straightaway on Sunday." Snape instructed.

"Thank you, Professors!" Raychel said, genuinely.

"You may go now." Dumbledore informed, and she left to go to the library and tell Hermione. She wouldn't gloat though; the potions are bound to be hard.

That Saturday she was informed on what three potions she was to make. Two of them had to stew for at least one night. A Strengthening potion was the sole potion that could be made in one day. The other two were a potion for dreamless sleep and a potion to put on wounds to help them heal faster.

She started on the Strengthening potion and finished that in a relatively quick amount of time. Professor Snape popped in and out at random intervals. By dinner her potions were stewing for the night, and she would be able to begin again on it tomorrow. She was told by Snape that unfortunately, she would have to take her written test on Halloween. She volunteered to do it during dinner; he agreed, saying she could eat while testing and he would grade it that night, with results the next morning.

During charms, Harry was paired with Seamus and they tried to get a feather to hover. Seamus somehow caused the feather to burst into flames.

Hermione and Ron were fatefully paired together. They bickered about the spell.

"You are jabbing your wand around and you are likely to poke someone's eye out!" She cried exasperatedly.

"If you are so good at this, I'd like to see you make it hover." He shot back.

Hermione, who was already known to be good at everything, well, not flying, made the feather hover, and earned points from Professor Flitwick. That seemed to put Ron in his place for the rest of the class, which he spent scowling at the feather as if it wronged him.

When the bell rang, Harry and Ron jetted out of class, and while they were walking to the Great Hall for lunch, Ron mocked Hermione.

"Oh, you're doing it ALL wrong. It's like this, agh." He spat, "It is no wonder she hasn't got any friends." Ron said viciously.

Hermione who was trailing behind them within earshot, started to cry, and ran forward, accidentally bumping into Harry.

"I think she heard you Ron," Harry said with some concern. He passed off, but looked guilty and uncomfortable.

While Hermione made her way to the bathroom, she passed Raychel in the corridor. She did not respond when Raychel asked what was wrong, so Raychel tailed her to the bathroom.

"Hermione! What the bloody hell is wrong!?" Raychel screamed, which seemed to be the only way Hermione would hear her between her own sobs.

"It's just...that Ron Weasley. All I did was correct him—I did not deserve to be made fun of. But I guess he's right. I don't have any friends." She whined.

That hurt Raychel a little bit, because she considered Hermione a good friend. She liked her; she made more sense than anyone else in their year.

"I'm you're friend," Raychel put in quietly. Amazingly she heard it through her crying.

"I'm so sorry. I know you are my friend, but it's just—"

Raychel cut her off, "I know. It's okay." She understood Hermione, and tried to make the slight hurt pass. "I'll go get lunch for both of us, and I'll eat in here with you."

Hermione gave her a water smile, and agreed.

During their lunch together, Raychel told Hermione about how Ron stiffed her the way he did a few weeks back after they got on okay on the train. She was shocked, and then called Ron a prat. She also said that she did not feel like seeing him in her class for the rest of the day. It was unlike her to not go to class, but she can understand her annoyance. Besides, Halloween is supposed to be a happy, fun day, why ruin it with the likes of him.

She said she'd see her later if she could, because she had to take her written aptitude test. Hermione told her that she knew she would do well, and the bell rang for afternoon classes.

Raychel took her written test while eating food from a tray that magically made more food appear when it was empty. She knew most of the material, and felt she did well. She went to check the bathroom to see if Hermione was there.

"Hermione, have you eaten!?" Her friend must have resumed crying because her cheeks were still wet. Raychel embraced her, because Hermione needed one. The feast should still be going on, lets get you some food!" Raychel said, trying to instill some sort of cheeriness into Hermione. "Come along, now."

She just got Hermione out of her stall, when she turned around and said, "Oh, Merlin." Color drained from her tan complexion, and her mouth gaped. A troll was in the bathroom. She was so busy trying to cheer up Hermione that it wasn't noticed that anything entered, let alone a troll. Hermione went out to see what caused Raychel to stop so suddenly. She let out a loud, ear piercing scream. What were they going to do!?

**You guys know what's going to happen next…or do you? Kekeke. **

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed thus far. Review this please, I love feedback and suggestions. **


	5. That's how Friends are made

**Author's Note: Okay, movie was pretty good; I'm not going to lie. I miss Sirius though******

**Harry Potter does not belong to me and I only own characters that are not in the book.**

Ron and Harry saw the troll enter into a room. They ran to it and locked it, then decided to find the first teacher and tell them where it was. They were half way down the hallway when they heard a scream coming from that very room.

"Oh no!" Harry exclaimed, "Hermione must have been in there!"

Ron and Harry ran back as fast as they could. The opened the door to see the giant mountain troll towering above a Hermione huddled in a corner, and a simply awestruck Raychel.

"Oi! You two! Come here!" Ron yelled to them.

Hermione did nothing but whimper, but Raychel came out of her little trance.

"What're we going to do?!" she screamed in frustraiion.

The screams had echoed on the tiles of the restroom. The noise led to the troll to let out a scream in his own confusion. He really was an unintelligent creature. He started to advance toward the girls. \

"Hermione, you have got to get up!" Raychel screamed. "Come on now!" She looked up at the troll as it came closer. "Harry! Ron! Start shooting off any spell you know."

The boys obliged, while Raychel went for Hermione and half picked her up half dragged her to where the boys were standing. Just as Hermione got on her own two feet, the troll reached for Harry. He was dangling upside down while the troll aimed at Harry's head with its club.

When it was raised in the air, you heard Ron yell, "Wingardium Leviosa!" while moving his wand in the "swish and flick" motion. The troll no longer held a grip on the club, and Ron made motions with his wand, and consequentially the club struck the troll on the head. He let go of Harry, who quickly scrambled to where the others were, and the troll fell with a sickly, loud thud.

The four students were panting, and just looking at each other in disbelief.

The door burst open when Professors McGonagall, Quirrel, and Snape came rushing in. McGonagall looked as if she were about to faint, Quirrel's knees trembled, much like his voice often did, and Snape's features were shadowed.

"Explain yourselves." McGonagall said in a faint, stern voice.

Each student started to explain at once, to which McGonagall ordered for one person to speak. Hermione was the first to answer.

"It was my fault professor. You see, I've read about trolls, and I figured that I could handle it. I was wrong. It could have finished me off but apparently my screams attracted the attention of Harry, Ron, and Raychel. If they didn't come when they did, I wouldn't like to think about what might have happened." This was a complete lie, coming from the honest Hermione!

"Five points will be taken from Gryffindor for stupidity…However, five points to all of you for sheer dumb luck." McGonagall informed them, in the same faint voice.

"Return to your respective common rooms." ordered Snape. When Raychel walked past though, he told her that he would have her grade by the next morning. She thanked him, and walked on with Hermione, Ron, and Harry.

They had reached an intersection and they all looked at another's face awkwardly.

"Thanks." They all said at once. They all chortled.

Raychel resumed. "Seriously…I mean you and Harry really helped up out…If you hadn't started off firing spells, it might have just gone for us as we crossed." She genuinely meant it, as well.

Hermione piped up. "I agree. I'm also sorry for the way I was in Charms to you today. I may have, erm, shown you up a bit after scolding you."

Now it was Ron's turn. "No, I'm sorry for being a git afterwards. I mean, you were right anyway…Besides, obviously you taught me how to do it right now." They sort of grinned, and then Ron looked at his feet. Then, he turned towards Raychel. "Look, I shouldn't have treated you that way. You went out of your way to help out Hermione. You could have just left her in the corner or something. Other Slytherins would have done it, probably. What I am trying to say is; I shouldn't have judged you. You're different." His ears turned a bright red throughout his apology.

"Apology accepted." She smiled at him.

Harry looked at the other three in his company and asked, "Friends?"

All four chorused a yes, and then laughed a bit.

The next morning, Raychel was interrogated by different Slytherins, so they could get a first hand account of what happened. The same happened to the trio at the Gryffindor table. Fred and George had thumped Ron on the back. Percy began to write a letter to their mum.

When post came, Sebastian brought Raychel a letter from Snape. Draco, being Draco, took the letter and opened it. His pale eyes roved back and forth on the paper, and grew wide, closer to the finish. "You made it into Third Year Potions! Good job!" He looked sincere, so Raychel thanked him, and read the letter for herself.

Snape said she probably could have gone to fourth, but he wanted her to get enough material for O.W.L.'s. Her schedule was also in there. The only thing that was changed was that instead of her first year potion class was a free period, and a break period on a different day was taken up.

After breakfast, she walked with Harry, Hermione, and Ron to her former potions class. They all congratulated her. Along the way to the dungeons, Harry invited her to visit Hagrid with them on Saturday. She immediately said yes.

**Done for tonight…Yes, another semi-slow chapter. It will pick up though, that I promise. Even for eleven year old first years, there shall be much drama. Reviews please, if you can…you should…**


	6. Revenge

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Harry Potter. That belongs to Miss J.K. Rowling. I own characters not in the book.**

It was a sunny, but cool November Saturday. It was hard to believe that it was already November. The four new friends said they would meet outside the Great Hall at nine thirty. Raychel ate quickly so she could run off to the library for as much as she can so she can finish the rest of her essay for Charms.

She was eating as fast as she can, which she knew would cause discomfort slightly. Draco was eying her in awe, then asked "Why are you eating so bloody fast? We don't have any classes today."

"I want to get to the library so I can finish Charms homework. If you remember correctly, it was Crabbe and Goyle over here who got us the extra work!" she directed her attention to them both. "Honestly, was it necessary to hold arm wrestling matches in the middle of class?" she asked with a hint of a smile. It was funny because they were at it for ten minutes, and midway, Professor Flitwick began to call their names. They didn't realize that class and everything had ceased upon waiting for them. They guffawed at her question.

"Um, it's Saturday…you have all _day_ to work on it. Besides, I need you to help me with my Transfiguration homework." Said Draco with a matter of fact tone.

Raychel decided to just tell the truth. Well, not all at once. "I have an appointment." She said kind of lamely. "After I get done with my work."

He exaggerated a look of surprise. "Oh? And with whom, may I ask?"

_Why does he have to be so nosy?!_ "Why is this of your interest?" she shot back coolly, and then thought to just add in for insurance, "I'll help you with Transfiguration later. After dinner."

Thankfully post came and his package of sweets form home distracted him. Raychel sped her way to the library, getting scolded by Filch, whom she knocked over on the way.

When Draco finished his breakfast, he decided to tail Raychel to see what she was so keen on not telling him.

He watched her through the bookshelves, pretending to be deeply interested in a book called _Fantastic Magical Properties of Dirt_ whenever Madam Pince walked by. For an hour and a half he stood there holding a book he thought to be the stupidest he's ever looked at, ad watching a fellow Slytherin. She had finished her composition, looked at her watch, and then she got engrossed in a book until 9:23. Then she left, and he followed her.

She went to the door to the grounds where she had greeted Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Draco looked confused, and was about to yell something out at her as they all went outside together, when Pansy Parkinson called his name. Following her were Crabbe and Goyle. "There he is, now stop following me." She looked at the two with disdain, but looked at Draco and smiled. He knew he no longer could tail her…for today.

Raychel was introduced to Hagrid. She thought him extremely nice, and was happy she went.

They talked about things, when Harry brought up something that she had no idea about.

"Hagrid, what is Dumbledore doing keeping a three headed monster in Hogwarts?" Harry asked while Ron and Hermione shook their heads vigorously.

He looked both bewildered and astonished. "How do you know about Fluffy?!"

"Long story," said Ron, but the three delved into their tale. During their story, Raychel couldn't help but think, "_Three headed dog, mountain troll! So much adventure!_

When they finished, Hagrid seemed to have regained composure…Notice the word seemed. "Now yeh guys are meddlin' inter things that aren't supposed to be meddled with. I want yehs to ferget about that door, an' I mean it. What's being guarded is between Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel. Top secret, that is!" He exclaimed, but when he saw Harry's excited face at what Hagrid uncovered. "Ferget what I jus' said!" He said over and over.

Ron waved Hagrid off when he refused to tell them just who Nicholas Flamel was. "We'll just look him up ourselves!"

The topic moved to other things, like Quidditch, and classes. Hermione had boasted Raychel's achievement in potions.

Hagrid was very interested in that. He asked her if she thought it was hard, but the said her first Third Year potions class was on Tuesday.

They left when the lunch bell rang. Hagrid walked with them to the school. "Its nice ter see _one_ Slytherin that gets on well with Gryffindors." He told them with a smile.

"I heard that's a rare find, that is." Raychel replied, smiling. She liked her Gryffindor friends. And her Ravenclaw ones, even though they don't talk much out of class. They aren't hostile towards her though. She doesn't have any classes with Hufflepuffs, so she doesn't know any of them.

All five of them went to their separate tables, Hagrid going to the Head Table.

At the Slytherin table, Draco greeted her airily. Then he asked, rather nonchalantly, "So, you're friends with Potty, the Weasel, and that Granger girl, are you?" This really started to get on her nerves.

"Why does it matter?"

"Oh no, it doesn't," he said. And from then on, none of f the Slytherins in first year talked to her. All of course, because Draco told them not to.

On Monday, she was shoved by Crabbe and Goyle, Pansy had tripped her, another Slytherin girl that was friends with Pansy named Tina Lenicks, insulted her every time she saw her.

Raychel didn't let this go unchecked. After all, revenge was always fun. Plus, being smarter than the four that were aforementioned, she had hexes up her sleeve that they didn't know.

On Tuesday, she had Goyle's clothes shrink so that they almost strangled him. At one point he could not even move, and fell over. The clothes continued to get smaller and his pants split up the middle. In the corridor, students laughed loudly. When he told Crabbe to help them, he levitated him. This was perfect because that was right in the direction of Raychel. When they passed, she asked "Are you okay, Gregory?" in an acidly, sweet voice, as if what they did yesterday never happened.

Goyle continued using the _locomotor_ charm to carry him to the Slytherin common room. Crabbe had to hurry because Transfiguration was in no more than five minutes. With precise timing Raychel made a suit of armor go crashing down using magic and watched Crabbe trip. When he fell, the magic connection of the _locomotor _spell broke, and Goyle fell on top of Crabbe. Raychel turned, walked away, and did not look back.

The two were ten minutes late to Transfiguration and were given detention because they had no pass. While they were being reprimanded, Raychel thought of how Draco never bothered with her. She also thought of what she would do to Pansy and Tina. Next however she had Potions and they had a free period, so she would have to do something during lunch.

Her new potions class was with Gryffindor as well. When she arrived at the dungeon for potions class, Ron's twin brothers who Raychel never met, but knew that they were pranksters, caused some sort of commotion with their friend whom they called Lee. Snape was busy taking away points from them.

When they got in class he announced two things. "Class, this is Raychel Garretson, she is a first year, but is more talented in potions than some in here." He took that moment to stare pointedly at the Gryffindors. "There are new seating arrangements, as see that some are not mature enough to be around certain others.

"Weasley," he growled, "There." And he pointed to a third desk back.

Being Fred and George, they both went to where he pointed, and sat down. Gryffindors snickered appreciatively, and Raychel hid her laugh as well. One of the twins caught her eye and winked.

"Five points from Gryffindor, for cheek."

"You said Weasley. We're both a Weasley, so we weren't wrong." Said the one that did not wink at Raychel.

"Five points for talking back. You," he ordered to the one that spoke, "Over there next to Ackley." A third year Slytherin boy. Lee was moved two rows over and in the front seat, from the one that stood where he was. "Raychel, you sit next to that one." Snape said, and then he muttered quietly, "If he gives you problems, you can do whatever means you need to, to make him stop."

She went and sat down next to the Weasley twin, and said hello.

"You're my brother's friend, right?" he asked, friendly.

"Yes, I am."

"George Weasley," he offered his hand. "That's Fred over there. We saw what you did to those guys. It was brilliant."

"Thanks…I couldn't let them think that they can scare me." He looked at her inquisitively. "I'll explain while we do this," she said hurriedly. Snape just gave them the potion they would work on. At the end class, Raychel's was just about perfect. She was familiar with that potion, being as she's made it before in her basement.

Walking out, they conversed more, this time Lee and Fred joined. Introductions were made, and they were amazed at her dexterity in potions. They got to the Great Hall, and Raychel said, "I have two more people to get back at. Have a good lunch!" and she sauntered off toward her table. They laughed while George told them why she was doing what she was.

Raychel waved to Hermione, Harry, and Ron. When she was level with the Slytherin table, she smiled at Draco, continuing this demeanor of ignorance.

**Blah, this one was long. I know it's slow, but more is coming. We'll get to more fun soon, but I hope you enjoy. Besides, a lot of stories start of slow and escalate. Reviews for me to read please!!**


	7. Double Agent?

**Disclaimer-Harry Potter is J.K. Rowling's; any character not in the book belongs to me.**

Raychel took an empty place at the Slytherin table. Pansy was more or less seven seats to her left. Tina was right across from Pansy.

_What to do, what to do…_ pondered Raychel. An idea came to mind.

She took out her wand but held it where passerby would not notice. She used a Levitating spell, and aimed it at Pansy's plate. It began to rise. If you weren't paying attention, Pansy's shrieking scream would have caught it. Raychel only glanced up when Pansy screamed, so suspicion would not be on her. She jerked her wand and the plate was over Pansy's head. Another jerking movement with her wand, and the plate tipped.

Rachel's job was complete. She had no intention on wasting time on Tina; her words meant nothing.

At the Gryffindor table, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Fred, George, and Lee looked up at the streak, and George muttered, "Nice one Raychel," then laughed when he saw Pansy wearing her food.

In the library, Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Raychel were talking. Raychel and Hermione finished with their work, Harry and Ron decided they would pick it up later.

"So, are you going to tell us _why_ you decided to do all that to Pansy, Goyle, and Crabbe?" asked Hermione, a smile playing at her lips.

"Does it matter Hermione, it was funny!" Harry said.

Raychel told them how Draco made them ostracize her and harass her and what not. At that Hermione exclaimed, "Merlin! It's our fault!"

Raychel looked all but understanding. "How are you getting that?" She cocked her head sideways when asked, as if that would make things any more clear.

"You've befriended Gryffindors, and now they're trying to make you pay for it or something!" She exclaimed fretfully.

"Hermione," Ron interjected, "They're prats. She can be friends with whoever she bloody pleases!" Raychel smiled at him.

"He's right Hermione…Besides what're you going to do, stop being my friend because of their actions? Obviously I can handle them."

The boys chortled at that remark. "Well…maybe we should stage an argument…and be friends, secretly?" Her last seemed like a question, and her voice faded with ever word.

"That is not possible, really." Harry said. "I mean, someone is bound to see us." Hermione told him he was right.

"I have an idea," cried Ron quite loudly, earning him a "SHHHH" from Madam Pince and Hermione. Harry and Raychel smirked. "What if you make a lie…like, you know, 'I was just trying to see what they were up to…' or something."

No one said anything, and Ron, who was triumphant looking at first slightly wilted in his chair.

"That…was a brilliant idea Ron!" Raychel exclaimed loudly. Madam Pince scolded her as well.

"But, "Hermione obviously had her doubts. "Do you think it would work?"

"Of course it would, Draco would then try to ask her what we're up two. Kind of like in Muggle movies with their double agents." Harry put in.

"And whenever he asks, I will make something up. That is really an excellent idea. I mean, he won't even know." Raychel smiled. This was getting better every moment. Draco will think he knows everything; but in reality he will know nothing at all.

"Next time he talks to me, I'll play all apologetic, and saying my intentions…Or what he thinks were my intentions…You know, I can tell you if he's ever planning something or anything like that." Raychel put in thoughtfully.

"It's almost like a conspiracy," Ron said.

They talked some more, and then went their ways to their common rooms.

"She's pretty cool for a Slytherin," said Ron. I feel quite bad for being rude to her before. I wouldn't want to get on her bad side."

Hermione and Harry laughed. Then Hermione said seriously, "I can sort of understand why she was put in Slytherin. I mean, she is pretty cunning, especially now she's going to be like what Harry said, a double agent or whatever."

"One day when Malfoy finds out that she lied to him so much without his knowledge, he will feel _so _stupid.

In the Slytherin common room, Raychel was ambushed by Draco. She was surprised none of his other goons were around him.

"Why did you do that to Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle?" he demanded.

"Well, what was I supposed to do, let them keep harassing me? She demanded back,

He raised his voice a little bit, trying to be intimidating, "Why are you friends with Gryffindors? Especially Potter, the Weasel, and that Mudblood." He spat.

Raychel hated that term absolutely, but didn't say anything. Now it was time for some acting. "They always look like they're up to something. I wanted to find out. They didn't trust me at first, but now they do. I have access to information about Gryffindors and any thing that they're in on." She saw the change in Draco's face, felt satisfied, and looked down at her nails for a second, for added effect, than started to walk towards the girls dormitories.

"Y-you know things? About Gryffindors?" he asked gleefully.

"What does it matter to you?" Her back still turned to him.

"Why didn't you tell me what you were up to? That's a good idea!" he exclaimed.

Raychel thought to herself happily, _Thanks to Ron for that!_ "You never gave me a chance. How could I when all of a sudden people in my own house mysteriously stopped talking to me, and I've got people pushing me around?" He suddenly looked crestfallen. Raychel loved it.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly. "I made them do it, and I'll make it stop."

"Yeah?" she asked, finally looking him in the eye.

"Yes." He replied. "What did you find out?"

Raychel had come up with the lie quickly. She couldn't do anything that could put them into trouble with a teacher so she said, "Well, right now they were just gossiping really, but the longer I stay with this, the more I will be trusted. They will be pouring their hearts out to me," and at that Draco laughed with mirth.

"I knew you were a Slytherin when I met you." She then bade him goodnight and went to the girls dormitories. She was going to wake up early and make Sebastian give Harry and a letter saying that he was eating the lies right from her hand.

The only thing that disturbed her was how he told her he recognized her as a Slytherin. Was she really acting in such a way? Then when he spat out the names and called Hermione a Mudblood, she felt so disgusted. _Hopefully_, she thought, _I will learn to accept where I am._


	8. His Facade

**Disclaimer: J.K Rowling owns Harry Potter. I only own the characters that are not in the book because I created them. Only five more days! By the way, I am not eating, drinking, sleeping or anything until I finish that book!**

It got into December quickly. Raychel and Hermione engaged in schoolwork which made it speed by for them. Harry had Quidditch plus his studies, and Ron was busy keeping up. The plan was working quite well, and nobody suspected anything. The Slytherins were once again civil. Another thing that was keeping the aforementioned people busy was looking for Nicholas Flamel.

A week before Christmas holiday, Harry exclaimed exhaustedly at a table in the library, "I just _know_ I have heard that name somewhere!" But where?"

"I agree; I know I've must have read about him or a Professor may have mentioned him. I just can't place my finger on it." Raychel said wearily.

"While I'm away for the holiday, you guys _must_ search for him!" Hermione told them urgently.

"Oh Hermione, are we allowed to enjoy Christmas?" Ron asked both sarcastically and disbelievingly. She chose to ignore him.

Ron started to say something else, this time directed to Raychel. "What've you been telling Malfoy lately?" He had this goofy grin on that tickled Raychel's easily amused nature. She started to laugh, and the trio just stared at her as if she was mad. "Sorry," she choked out. "It's just Ron…I don't know," and she burst into another fit of laughter. "I've just told him that I'm making up lies about things that go on in Slytherin to tell you. He thinks you lot are nosy. It's kind of funny because he never quits asking me questions." She informed them.

"He's believing you too?" Harry asked incredulously.

Raychel looked Harry in the eye and grinned, "I guess I'm good at this."

Draco was laying across a couch in the common room the night before the holiday vacation. His feet were slung upon the arm, as if he had owned the entire room. He watched Raychel write something across from him. She had finished and tied it into a package. That was the second one she did that night. They must be for her parents. She looked at her wrist watch then murmured, "Just enough time."

"Where are you going?" Draco asked her as she stood up.

"To the Owlery." She replied.

Draco stood up too as she started to walk. He was a taller then her. "I have absolutely nothing to do. I'm coming with you."

"Okay," was all she said.

She really didn't mind Draco, especially when he was on his own. She found him to be incredibly nosy, and only amplified that with her lie of spying on her Gryffindor friends. She hated the fact that they all couldn't just enjoy each others company. She wished she could make Draco see that it isn't your bloodline that makes who you are. She expected that he grew up that way though. There was just no possible way that a child could come from the womb, with a supercilious nature. It just couldn't happen! She was getting lost in her thoughts of how her friends hated Draco, her acquaintance. She could see Draco as a friend, but there was a lot of conflict in that, especially the fact that she lies to his face, practivally every day.

She was interrupted by Draco asking, "What did you get them?" It wasn't in his interrogative voice he used when trying to get information out of her. It was more of a genuinely curious tone.

"Who?" she asked, confused.

"Your parents," and he pointed to the parcel that she was carrying.

"Oh," she smiled and her face softened. "I got them their gifts in summer because I didn't think I would be able to come home and go shopping for them and I sort of forgot about Wizarding catalogs." She blushed. "I got my mum a vase that has seeds and what not for flowers. These grow overnight and last for about a week. Then they die, but grow back the next day. They constantly change colors when they re-grow. They're called 'Everlasting Beauties'." After saying that, she brandished the longer package in her left hand. Then she shook the one in her right saying, " I got my dad a new set of crystal vials for his potions he makes at home. His were getting old, and some had gotten discolored from a lot of use. He refuses to buy a pair until they are one hundred percent worn out."

Eying her while she spoke, and how her expression changed he thought, the asked, "You guys are really close, aren't you?" It wasn't accusatory, but kind. A tone Raychel barely heard him use.

She smiled again, her white teeth gleaming in the torch on the sconce. "I love them both…just so much. They're…" so many words came into Raychel's mind, and she couldn't choose which one. Finally she settled upon what she would say. "Amazing would be an understatement."

She paused, then asked, "How about you, what are you getting for your parents?"

At that he blushed. "I bought my mother a pearl necklace and I got my father a pair of dress boots."

"Wow" was what Raychel murmured, impressed. _Okay, he is definitely loaded! _Raychel thought to herself. "That's wonderful. Are you close with _your_ mum and dad?"

"Well, erm, not really." Draco looked a bit embarrassed but quickly hid that. He was though; she had a great relationship with her parents, his wasn't so great. He was somewhat envious, but not to a point where it would be a conflict.

"I'm sorry to hear that," she looked him in the eyes for the first time since leaving the Slytherin common room. Nothing more was said on the subject, and they arrived at the Owlery.

"Here, let me grab that for you." Draco took the larger parcel. Raychel looked over at him gratefully as she held her arm out for her owl. Sebastian flew down and landed on her arm, his talons grasping her arm with just enough force.

"Damn it." Raychel muttered, but Draco heard.

"What happened?" he asked, in the same kind tone as before.

"My owl treats for him. Can you get them out of my bag? They're in the front pocket?" she requested.

She thanked him as he opened the bag. "You're hands are a bit full, so I'll feed him…if you'd like." He added the last part on, as if he didn't know if he was allowed.

"Thanks again!" she said, and meant it.

"Oh, this is no good. Sorry Sebby, but I'm going to have to put you down for a second to tie Daddy's present to your leg." She said the last part in the affectionate sort of way that people talk to their pets. While Raychel tied the parcel to his leg, she failed to suppress a smile because Draco was now in hysterics leaning against the low perched rafter on which Sebastian had been put down. Raychel, still smiling brought Sebastian to the window and he flew out.

"Now I need a school owl." Raychel said more to herself, mostly on the count of Draco was now tearing from laughter. Draco had fed her owl all the owl treats, so she had none to offer for a school owl. She tied the parcel between two owls so that way the one owl would not be weighed down, and for more insurance that the vase would not break.

Draco seemed to have come over himself and asked, "Why don't you send them Christmas Eve?"

_Always asking questions,_ Raychel thought. "They're going to America to visit their friends that moved because," Raychel remembered Ron saying Draco's father was rumored to have been in close with the Dark Lord, so refrained from mentioning the true reason for why they moved, "a job opportunity." She finished lamely. That made it seem as if it were one family when in reality they were going to New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.

"They had invited me, but they're staying past when school re-starts. They've decided to make it like a small vacation. They haven't had one in a few years…They leave in a few days."

On the way back they talked of past Christmases. Back in the Slytherin common room, Crabbe and Goyle were there and Draco went back to the haughty self he was. Raychel wondered if the Draco she was just conversing with, the Draco that had just cried from laughing at her voice when talking to her owl, was a side of him that he never really showed. It was antonymous of the Draco that was before her eyes now. Back to jeering at everything not Slytherin or rich or both at once, she knew that he was either back to normal or showing his "default".

In the Gryffindor common room, spirits were high. Ron and Hermione had engaged in Wizards Chess and Hermione was far from winning. She was in complete concentration although there was quite a lot of noise in the common room, Fred and George being the main source of it all, as always. They were portraying different professors comically, which earned much laughter. George had just done a spectacle on Snape. Hermione looked livid when people started whooping.

Finally, the later hours came, and in all common rooms, students went to their rooms, most of them not wanting to miss the train back in the morning.


	9. Nighttime Wandering

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I only own characters that were not in the books…**

**Author's Note: I just saw this awesome movie called **_Idle Hands_. **Its funny go rent/buy it.**

On Christmas morning, Harry, Ron, and Raychel all woke up to a pile of Christmas presents. Raychel gave them both a box of candy each. She gave Hermione a book. She received the same back from each. They have only known each other since November, so it was not easy to get presents.

Her parents wrote a letter back saying they loved her presents and gave her some earrings and book about potions.

In the first year dormitory for boys in the Gryffindor Tower however, Harry was mystified by a package sent from someone with no name but it was said to be his father James'. Ron had exclaimed that his mysterious new gift was an Invisibility Cloak. At Christmas lunch, Harry and Ron told her of his gift, and Raychel exclaimed that he could use it for the Restricted Section in the library. "When everyone is asleep, you could look in peace!" she told him excitedly. "I mean, if he's worked with Dumbledore, he has to be of some sort of talent, ya' know?"

They all thanked each other for the gifts and enjoyed the Wizarding crackers in which Raychel, Ron, and Harry got altogether: white mice, a water gun, a kaleidoscope, a furry ball, and a miniature quill.

That night, Harry could not sleep. He was pondering over who gave him the cloak. Then, when just laying down in his four poster bed was no longer an option, he grabbed his cloak, and started down the stairs. He wondered through the castle, in the direction of the library. The castle's eerie nighttime quietness was slightly unnerving, but Harry pushed that feeling aside.

He was in the Restricted Section; he was nothing more than a specter. He picked out a heavy book, which had a layer of dust on the top of it. He blew it off, and looked for a title. Finding none, he opened the book and it let out a scream so loud that it must have woken the entire castle. Harry hastily shut it, the scream still echoing in his ears, and slammed it back into its spot, and then he ran for it. In the process, he knocked over his lantern but he didn't care. He just ran.

He came into contact with voices. He recognized Snape's use of intimidation, and then recognized Quirrell's stutter, "I-I-I don't kn-know what you're talking a-a-about, Se-Severus."

"You know perfectly well what I am talking about," but Filch came to the pair, wheezing, and told Snape, "You told me to come to you if someone's been a wandering around the school after hours. Someone's been in the Restricted Section very recently," he raised Harry's lantern. "It's still warm." He started to lead the way, and Quirrell followed. Snape grabbed his arm.

"Decide where your loyalties lie." And not another word was said as they followed Filch. Harry barely dared to breathe while they were there, but when they were gone, he set off the corridor in which he was in. He passed a suit of armor, and then saw a door. He opened it and entered what seemed to be an unused classroom. Then, while walking through, he saw a mirror and decided to look into it.

Ron was in shock the next morning, after what Harry had told him, as was Raychel. Ron was more indignant that Harry had not woken him up to go on what seemed like another great adventure.

"I wonder what was going on with Snape and Quirrell."

"Snape is obviously planning something, and Quirrell doesn't want to be a part of it. I don't blame him, who would _want_ to work with an enormous bat like that?" Harry burst into a fit of silenced laughter. If he didn't keep it down, they would be kicked out of the library. Once again, they were searching for Flamel.

"You know," Raychel said defensively, for her Head of House, "He's really great at potions. I mean he's told me about potions that some would only _dream_ of making because of the sheer difficulty of some them! People just can't do it half the time."

Ron and Harry looked disgusted. "Well, you're a Slytherin," She was about to protest because she did not want this subject to be brought up _again_. "And he isn't all that fair to people that are not in Slytherin, so we're not enlightened by him about his potion making."

Raychel opened and shut her mouth then sighed. "You're right, I mean, he yells at your brothers and Lee all the time." She said to Ron. "They're quite funny. I sit next to George. I didn't know you broke your leg when you seven because your broomstick bucked you off…It must not have liked you." Ron looked indignant at the information she knew, and blubbered, "I was not as experienced with brooms as I am now." And Harry and Raychel had a good laugh.

Harry accompanied by Ron this time made their way to that room. They stood for hours, amazed by what they were seeing in the mirror, each trying to hog it for they liked what they saw.

They told Raychel of their adventure the night before, and she insisted that she go too. She was quite intrigued by this, and loved the thought of wandering around the school at night, virtually undetected. Harry took his turn in the mirror, standing there with an open smile on his face. Raychel noted the longing in his eyes; Ron couldn't because he was complaining that he wanted a go.

Finally both boys stopped bickering, and let Raychel have a turn. She knew not what this mirror showed, so she looked tentatively into it. Immediately Ron asked, "What do you see?"

"Give me a minute, will you?"

She gazed into the mirror and looked at herself. Her appearance was only altered by one thing. Her robes had the Ravenclaw emblem upon the lapel. She was standing with Draco, Harry, Hermione, and Ron, and they all seemed to be happy, a little older, and getting along. It was weird, especially compared to the other two boys sights.

"So?" Harry asked, quickly taking his spot in front of the mirror when she backed out.

"I-I don't know what it means." She put on a look of indifference. "It can't mean much can it?"

"It does," Harry said quietly, "to me at least…It shows me my family."

"Do you think it shows the future?" Ron asked.

Ron and Raychel exchanged meaningful glances.

"How can it if my parents are dead?" Harry asked, not accusatorily but you could sense the emotion in his voice.

"Yes, that won't make sense. It wouldn't with mine either." Raychel put in.

"What did you see?" Harry asked this time.

She waved her hand and nodded her head as if to say that it didn't matter. In reality she was sort of baffled by it.

Then she pointed to what seemed to be a weird etching along the top frame piece of the mirror. They all decided to go. The two boys walked Raychel to the staircase. She needed to go down to the dungeons herself. She said it was okay, and the two left swiftly for their tower.

Vacation ended and classes were due to start. Harry filled Hermione in at the library. He also told her about how he ran into Dumbledore. Hermione was quite put out when she had found out that no news on Flamel was found. "Guess that means we have to keep searching." She said.

That however diverted her attention for about a millisecond. She did not hesitate to scold the three of them for being foolish. She told them they could have lost points for their houses or got expelled.

"Hermione!" Raychel squealed. "There is no need to cry over spilt milk. No one lost points, so let's just keep looking for Flamel."

During break the next afternoon, Raychel parted from Draco after Herbology, and he winked at her. He was still completely convinced that she was a "mole" of sorts. She smiled mischievously back.

"Snape just took points away from us for about no reason at all! That lousy git!" fumed Ron.

Once again, Raychel jumped to her Head's defense, "Well I'm sure if you talk to him, he can be reasonable and give them back. Or talk to McGon—"

Even Hermione snorted disbelievingly. Raychel had respect for all teachers, especially Snape. It wasn't the fact that he was the head of her house; she was still trying to accept the fact she was a Slytherin. He was a great potioneer. He could be doing something far more than teaching. _It's true, he often seems unpleasant, but he has talent! _Raychel thought.

"Okay, bad idea," Raychel grinned sheepishly.

"Look cheer up you lot. Hermione will earn Gryffindor points back in her next class. She'll just answer a bunch of questions." Hermione blushed and tried to quiet Raychel.

"Here, take a Chocolate Frog, each of you." She took the frogs from the pocket of her robes and held them out for the others.

Harry was chewing his frog, and then exclaimed that he had Dumbledore. That was his first ever, he announced. He flipped to the back, and then went silent.

"I've found him! I've found Flamel!" Harry exclaimed. They all read the card, and then half ran-half walked to the library.

All along the way there, Hermione was saying, "Why didn't I think of it before!?"

She took out a rather large book and looked up Flamel. It informed them that he is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone that was still alive.

They were glad that they had this information. It was all that was needed really, but they agreed to read up more on it, just in case.


	10. Jelly Legs and Dragon Eggs

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. J.K Rowling does. I own all characters not in the books.**

**A/N: Pound cake and muffins are the best ever!**

Raychel was adding spiders to the potion she was working on when George suddenly exclaimed, causing her to jump, "Raychel, I have something for you!" He made sure to keep his voice as low as he could, for Snape was going throughout the room. "Ron told me to give this to you."

He handed her a folded piece of parchment, but Snape had started to come their way. She placed it under her vial. "Is it urgent, do you know?" she whispered back.

"Well, he sort of had this strained look upon his face. Kind of like when he sees a spider."

"He doesn't like spiders?"

George then told the story of Fred turning Ron's teddy bear into an arachnid, while completing their potions. Later on, when they were nearly finished, George thanked her, "It's funny, I talk to you just about as much as I talked to Fred or Lee when we sat near each other, but yet I get my potion done, and somewhat correctly. Thanks for the, uh, inspiration." He grinned.

She waved her hand and said jokingly, "I have that effect on people." Then they bottled their potions and headed up to Snape's desk and placed them there. Then she read the note with George peering over her shoulder. It was in Ron's messy script.

_Dear Raychel,_

_Hagrid was in the library yesterday, after you had left. He was acting very odd, and then invited us all, including you, to come around his hut. Meet us in the entrance hall at 10:00 in the morning Saturday. Harry is in Quidditch practice now, and Hermione is being unbearable in the library, so I decided to write this and find Fred or George so I wouldn't have to hear her._

_Yours truly,_

_Ron._

"Hmph!" George crooned. "He sends an invite to the entire world, and he won't invite the best two of his three brothers here at Hogwarts!"

"He just wanted the best, period." Raychel said with a feigned seriousness.

"Oh yeah, you think you're the best?" George asked. "We're third years, we know things." He said "we're" because the bell had just rung and Fred and Lee were at their table. They began their walk out. Fred and George were speaking silently with Lee. They were nearing the Great Hall when three pairs of hands grabbed Raychel and pulled her into an empty room. Then Fred and Lee kept their grasp on her when George backed away.

"So, if you're so great, what will you do now?!" He asked her his voice raised in a would-be intimidating voice if he didn't put on the dumbest face imaginable. Then he put a tickling charm on her. For two minutes, she was laughing so hard that she couldn't breathe. Hearing the noise as he was going up to the Great Hall, Professor Snape walked in the room and yelled, "What in the name of Merlin do you think you're DOING!?"

The three boys had their mouths opened ready to speak, but Raychel just scream-laughed and Snape decided to take the charm off of her.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor!" Snape barked at the boys.

"Wait, Professor Snape! I started it, I swear! I got Lee and Fred with a Jelly Legs, and George took it off them. It was all in good fun." She looked at her professor pleadingly, and tried working the magic of being a student he favored.

"Very well, Miss Garretson." He said, reluctantly, twenty five points back to Gryffindor. Twenty five stay off for hexing a female." He paused, and then smiled at Raychel, "Twenty five points to Slytherin, for using her Charms lessons well." Then he stalked out of the room.

"We didn't even learn that hex in Charms!" Raychel crowed and they all burst out laughing. On the way into the Great Hall, the boys said goodbye to her, and George ruffled her hair, which she had to fix on the way to her table. When at her usual spot near Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle, she sat.

"You've got all of them eating right out of your hands!" Draco said with pride as if it were his idea.

Raychel however chose not to respond, and put a sandwich on her plate. She began to ponder about what she saw in her mirror. It was so odd, because what she saw did not seem likely at all. Draco hated Harry, Ron, and Hermione; the feeling was most definitely mutual. Why did they look so happy, and civil in the mirror?

"Hello?!" Draco said loudly to her. She was not even paying attention to him; she was so lost in her thoughts. "Huh?"

"Did you do History of Magic homework?"

"Why?" she asked. She was a lot like Hermione in this respect. You could be her absolute best friend in the world, but she would never let you copy.

"I need help." Then he went on asking her questions and adding to his essay. She didn't find this wrong, because by hearing in at least, he would hopefully retain the information. Then when they were both finished, her with her sandwich, him with his essay, they walked down to History of Magic. Crabbe and Goyle had suddenly realized to which class they were going, and then both whined, "I forgot to do the essay!"

"You morons," Raychel hissed, "I was giving Draco half of the answers during lunch. Were you too busy?"

"What you guys were talking about sounded dead boring." Goyle grunted.

"And there were corned beef sandwiches!" Crabbe said, as if it was corned beef sandwiches that made the world turn.

Raychel shook her head and sighed. She caught Draco doing the same thing, which she found comical. Then Pansy Parkinson and Tina Lenicks started having a loud conversation about some article that was featured in _Witches Weekly_. Draco looked up, and she caught his eye, and then they began conversing. Draco quickly changed the topic, because the article they were talking about was too "girly".

Raychel took her notes, like usual in the class. Harry and Ron joked that it was only her and Hermione that could resist the boredom of Professor Binns.

Draco slid her over a note which read: _Thanks for help before._

_Not a problem_. Was what Raychel wrote back.

Goyle and Crabbe had started to snicker because they thought they were really witty bringing food along with them in their pockets.

Ten minutes later, Draco was asleep to her left, Blaise Zabini asleep to her right. She still continued taking her notes. Then she began to write a note to her friends in Gryffindor. This would be a good way to keep in touch throughout the day, being as they weren't in the same classes. She just wrote about what happened in Potions and how Snape awarded her points for hexing someone…or supposedly hexing someone.

Saturday could not have come quicker. The four students made their way down to Hagrid's hut and knocked upon his door, and he welcomed them in.

"I'm glad yeh lot came." They all noticed how hot it was and how every shade by the window was closed.

Hermione was the first to speak, and she did so nervously. "What exactly is going on here Hagrid?

"Well," Hagrid started, "Well…" he said again.

Ron made his way to the hearth and peered inside a metal pot hanging above the fire.

"Hagrid! I can't believe you!" Ron moaned, not willing to believe what he saw.

They all, including Hagrid himself, made their way to the fireplace. Harry, Hermione, and Raychel all looked inside the pot, and looked up expectantly at Hagrid as if to say "Well, explain yourself."

"Well, I er, won a dragon egg from a bloke up at the Hog's Head through a game o' cards." Before he could go on or anyone could interrupt, they all went quiet when they heard a noise. It was coming from the egg. It was hatching!

_A/N: Review please____ And yes, it's slow, but look, we're halfway through first year. Second year will be more fun, I promise…Not that this isn't…I know everyone reading this is having the time of their life. ;- ) _


	11. Draco's New Advantage

**Disclaimer:** **I do not own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling does. I own all characters not in the books.**

**A/N: Okay, this is really random…but I have my brother's old laptop and I am going through his iTunes…Everyone go listen to Honkytonk Badonkadonk by Trace Adkins… That is the funniest thing I ever heard…no offense to country music lovers********But really, it's catchy. By the way, **_**Deathly Hallows**_** was incredible. By the way, sorry it took so long but it has been very hard to get to the internet right now…I'm at my Granny's;)**

For the next three weekends, Raychel joined with Ron, Hermione, and Harry to Hagrid's hut. This was how long it was until Draco began to question her about why she continually went there.

"They're very open when they're around him is all." She said indifferently.

She made her way down to Hagrid's hut. No one was waiting for her by the doors, so she assumed they were already there. She was pretty late waking up, so she skipped breakfast. In her opinion, Hagrid's need was greater than her hunger. He was a big guy, but Norbert, as he called his rare Norwegian Ridgeback, as Ron told us it was, was growing at an alarmingly fast rate. When she went there, Ron was helping Hagrid.

"Hagrid grab his tail for a moment!" Ron yelled to Hagrid.

"But what if I hurt 'im?" Hagrid asked, looking at his garbage pail lid hands. At that exact moment, Norbert bit Ron's hand. Raychel went to a drawer right away, and went through things such as dog biscuits, and other miscellaneous things, and then she found some spare cloth. She beckoned Ron to come over to her, and Harry took over Ron's job, a little apprehensively. Raychel brought Ron's hand to Hagrid's sink, and washed it for him with soap. He could have done this himself, but she liked helping people in this sort of way. Then she dried it, and wrapped his hand up, to a medium tightness, that way the pressure would help the blood clot up.

Finally, they got Norbert to settle down, and Hagrid gave him some raw chicken and brandy. Then Hagrid offered them a cup of tea, which they all took gratefully. It was nice and warm inside, but they planned on leaving soon, so hopefully the warmth would stay. They began to converse about Norbert, the four students attempting to make him get rid of it, Hagrid arguing back that he could handle it. Finally Ron felt it was opportune to put in that he wrote to his brother Charlie. Charlie responded saying that his friends would be able to bring it to Romania. That basically meant it was final, and Hagrid realized that. He put his cup down, and looked at it sadly and mumbled something about other dragons being mean to him. Then he decided internally that it would be for the best, and looked up smiling, but that changed in a matter of seconds. With the smile left the color of his face.

"Hagrid what's up?" Harry pushed urgently, noticing how Hagrid's mouth was gaping.

"Student…" He just simply could not speak. "…through the window."

Both boys and both girls ran to the window as fast as they can. There was no mistaking the blonde hair shining in the wintry sunlight. "Malfoy" Harry and Ron snarled and spat, respectively. Raychel was acting like Hagrid when he saw him; her mouth opening and closing, like a fish, not knowing what to do. They all yelled hurried goodbyes to Hagrid, and started walking as fast as they could through the snow to do damage control with Malfoy.

Hermione looked at Raychel when they were walking. "Did you tell Malfoy where were going or something?" she didn't have an accusatory voice, merely concerned.

"No. But he seemed to kno—oh!" she exclaimed.

"What?!" they all asked her.

"He _knew! _He asked me why I had been going to Hagrid's. I didn't even realize that he knew. He must have followed! Oh no, I am so sorry."

"It's not your fault that Malfoy is a nosy git," Harry spat.

They ran into the entrance hall, and all four of them looked around. All of a sudden Ron yelled, "Malfoy!"

"What do _you_ want, Weasley?" Draco did not stay for a response and walked toward the dungeons with a smug, content expression.

Raychel looked at her friends. "I am going to go to the common room. I will try to see what's on his mind. I am _so_ sorry." As Raychel hurried to the Slytherin common room, she knew how foolish she sounded acting as if this were her fault. _What if he saw nothing, and only took off running when Hagrid saw him?_ She thought, knowing that it was impossible with the size that Norbert was.

"Acromantula" Raychel muttered at the wall, and that materialized into a door, and she walked in. "Draco," she called. "Why did you follow me?"

"I wanted to see what you were up to. You never told me he had a dragon." His voice, much unlike Hermione's, was quite accusatory. Raychel thought quickly.

"He only got it on Monday. They _do_ talk easier when he's there, and he just mentioned dragons in passing. Then today, he had one." Draco mulled that over in his mind. It must have been quite feasible, because he said "Oh."

She sat across from him, on an ottoman and said in a nice tone, "You now made it quite difficult. I don't think they will talk about anything important in front of me now." She wanted to experiment with how he would take a dearth of information.

"Don't say anything Draco. Because then _I_ could get in trouble as an accomplice or something. Being as Slytherin lost in the last Quidditch match, we need to keep as many points as we can. I know you don't like them, but, _please_ don't start something. I don't need suspicion on my end." She said this diplomatically, not in a whining voice. He would probably listen to her more this way.

"I'll try," he said, his signature smirk coming back into play. With that, Raychel got up and went to the library, hoping the trio would be there.

They were. She told them about the miniature conversation she held with him in the room, basically repeating it verbatim. She kept looking around as to make sure no one followed her. He made her a little paranoid, and that she did not like.

When they finished talking they started to go back to their common rooms.

Raychel and Hermione were always known to read books that helped you learn more spells and other things in the magical world. Raychel knew a lot about medical, so before they left she told Ron to let her see his hand. She took off the bandages, and looked at it. It was a faint green, and the places where the fangs pierced the skin, were raised.

"Ron. You need to go to the infirmary."

"No, she'll ask where I got it from."

Hermione offered to say that he got bit by a Fanged Geranium in Herbology.

"That's good enough Ron." He just shook his head, and they went their separate ways, the trio to Gryffindor Tower, Raychel to the Slytherin common room.

By the next day Ron's hand had swollen. He took their advice and left potions in the middle of the double period to go to the nurse. To Ron's dismay, Snape took off points for standing in the middle of class, which was quite funny because everyone was standing while they made their potion. He left the classroom grumbling. Draco smiled. _Raychel isn't going to be at the infirmary; she won't know that I went to annoy Weasley until later_

At the Slytherin table for lunch, Draco was eating fast, and then left, Crabbe and Goyle following after. They looked quite sad and wistful though, as they're second helping of lunch was left unfinished. Raychel finished and went to talk to Hermione and Harry. Ron wasn't there, and she couldn't picture him being at the library alone, working hard on a Transfiguration essay of whatever. "Hey guys, where's Ron?"

"He went to see Madame Pomfrey." Harry said.

Hermione then put in. "His hand was swollen quite a lot."

"We'll go visit him after dinner, then?" Raychel asked.

The trio nodded. Meanwhile, Draco went to torment Ron.

"Weasley, that bite looks _terrible_!" He said in a loud voice, hoping for it to carry to Madame Pomfrey.

"Can it, Malfoy. I swear I am going to—"Ron said, with an equally loud voice.

"Or you'll what, Weasley? You can't even use that hand!" Draco said happily, pointing at Ron's hand.

"Hello Mr. Malfoy," came Madame Pomfrey's kind, but stern voice. "Why are you yelling, Mr. Weasley?"

Draco answered before Ron could. "He was supposed to lend me a book, and he was upset because he didn't know where it was. But then I found it, and Draco took a book from the top of Ron's pile. "Bye, Ronald." Draco bade in a fake airy, overly friendly manner.

After dinner, Raychel, Harry, and Hermione went to Ron, and talked to him, and after about five minutes of conversation, Ron sat up starkly, and was rigid.

"Malfoy…took it! The book with Charlie's letter! He knows what we're doing with Norbert!" Ron's already pale face lost color.

Raychel began to leave at this point. "I have to go see whether or not he's read it. I'll get the book back for you too." Hermione and Harry said good-bye to Ron as well. Raychel gave Harry a meaningful look, "This looks like it's not going to be as easy. If I find out that Draco knows about this Saturday, I will try to get hamper him, so he can't get anyone."

While all preparing for bed in different parts of the castle, Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Raychel could not help thinking how quickly things get shaken up after finally getting it right.


	12. Detention for Four

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. J.K Rowling owns it. I own all characters not in the book.**

**A/N: I made a mistake in the last story. It says "I will get hamper him." The get should ****not**** be there******** I will probably change it if I remember, but I am at my Grandma's until Monday, and I am always busy here, doing things for her, so it's so much harder to do what I want…I also have to use my cousin's internet, so it's a bh to upload********. And away we go.**

It turns out that Draco did read the letter. Raychel went into more denial about knowing about them leaving, and he believed her. Raychel knew that as time went on, it will be so much harder to keep this act up. She figured she would do it until it doesn't work anymore.

Saturday came freakishly fast, and the three friends met in the Library. It was decided that nothing can be done, because suspicion could be brought on to Raychel if she just called it off. What would happen was that Hermione and Harry would go under the Invisibility Cloak to Hagrid's to get Norbert, and then bring him to the tower. Raychel found out that Draco planned on going as well to try ruining their plans. She would try to keep him in the common room.

"It's hard to stop him when he's set on doing something. I told him about that step that vanishes and he didn't believe me until his leg sunk into it." Raychel sniggered. It was quite funny having the haughty Draco Malfoy confidently march up a staircase when midway falling through. Needless to say, Crabbe and Goyle had to help him out while Raychel laughed in hysterics.

When Raychel told them that, the two couldn't help but snicker.

After dinner, Harry and Hermione prepared for what they were going to do. They visited Ron, and went to the common room. Raychel visited before the other two and hightailed it back to her own common room because she was going to attempt to deceive Draco as fast as she could before midnight.

"Draco, if you're caught, you'll lose so many points for Slytherin!" Raychel said.

"Wow! You have so much faith in your friends, don't you? What makes you think I will be caught?" he challenged.

"I'm being a realist, Draco. There are prefects, ghosts, Peeves, Filch, and teachers on the prowl after hours." Raychel had warned.

"How would you know? When do you go for nighttime wanderings?" Draco asked with a smile, ready to hear her answer.

"If I do, that's my business." She shot back.

"Hey, I tell you what I do, why don't you tell me what you ever do?" Draco asked back, not with an attitude but with a curious look in his eyes. "That's what friends do right? Tell each other things?"

This really got to Raychel. It was hard considering him a friend because of what he said. Friend's _do_ confide in each other, and she has been lying to him.

"I sometimes walk around at night when I have too much on my mind." This was half true. She's been nighttime exploring with Harry and Ron and Hermione on a few occasions. It was terribly hard trying to have all four bodies completely covered by the cloak. It was true that she sometimes walked around. It was noticeably more paranoia inducing when not under a cloak of invisibility. Everything seems to be moving, watching, breathing, and ready to give detention.

"Does that help?" Draco asked.

"Yes, a lot of the time." Why was she cooperating with him? She just mentally concluded that they couldn't really be friends with the fact that she conceals a lot of things from him. But there is thing about him when Crabbe and Goyle are not around that is different. These thoughts swirled in her mind causing her to barely hear Draco telling her that he was going to get started on the essay Professor Sprout assigned for Herbology.

Crabbe and Goyle sauntered in later. Draco exchanged whispers with them. They guffawed at whatever he said. Draco looked up and caught Raychel staring at him. "I told them my plan."

"You're going through with it?" Raychel demanded, "Why?"

"Because I want to catch Potter at rule breaking and get him in trouble. Gryffindor will not have a chance for the House Cup, especially against Slytherin." Draco said facilely.

Raychel kept at her onslaught of warnings. Draco kept being stubborn.

"Why don't you want Potter in trouble? You only _pretend_ to be his friend," Draco pointed out. Raychel realized she needed to put on her act again.

"It's you I want to keep out of trouble. You have to be like a shadow walker if you want to not get caught." Raychel explained.

It was nearing midnight, and Draco got up to leave. Raychel took a leaf out of his book and followed him. She would let him know she was there though, unlike he ever did. She would let him know outside of the common room, so he couldn't try to get her to stay.

When she announced her presence, Draco did the opposite of what she expected him to. He smiled at her and tugged at her arm to hurry up. _Great,_ she thought. _He thinks I am enjoying getting them into trouble._

Raychel constantly pulled Draco to her in the shadows when a ghost passed by or when she saw or thought she saw a teacher.

At the fourth false alarm, Draco scolded her in a loud whisper, "Stop doing that! If you keep doing that we will never make it there!"

Raychel was about to respond when a hand reached her shoulder from behind. She turned around to face McGonagall. Draco did the same.

"Hello Professor," Raychel started. If she were going to even _try_ to ferret her way out, she would have to start talking now. "Nice night, eh?" Raychel realized that any cheek would be out of bounds in this situation. She went on when Draco gave an impatient sigh and the professor made a funny noise in her throat.

"I---We were doing our Astronomy homework when I realized I left all of my notes in class. I was going to get my pieces of parchment back and finish my essay."

McGonagall was a smart witch whom Raychel respected. Raychel respected her even more when she seemed to believe it.

"Why couldn't you do it in the morning, and why did Mr. Malfoy accompany you?"

"See, it's due tomorrow Professor, and I only just remembered. I usually don't forget, but I guess there is a first time for everything, right?" She went on smoothly. "Draco just figured I shouldn't go alone."

McGonagall seemed to be mulling that over, while Draco looked at Raychel with a strained expression.

Right when McGonagall opened her mouth to speak, Draco piped up.

"Professor, Harry Potter is bringing a dragon to the highest tower for Hagrid so he can send it to Weasley's brother in Romania!"

McGonagall's expression changed in record time. Now she looked livid, and gave Malfoy a glare that could turn any person to stone. "What a despicable lie!" She grabbed Draco by the ear and motioned for Raychel to follow behind her.

Hermione and Harry passed an angry professor McGonagall towing an upset Malfoy and a worried Raychel on the way to the tower. When at the top, Hermione expressed her happiness for Draco being in trouble but noted her concern for Raychel.

"Why do you reckon she was with him?" Harry asked Hermione.

"Well, she did say that she would try to stop him." The two exchanged meaningful glances, and Norbert was grumbling.

Back in McGonagall's office, McGonagall was yelling at Draco for his lie. Raychel was annoyed that Draco had said that. It brought confusion to why they were together.

"Miss Garretson, do you have any idea of what Mr. Malfoy is talking about?"

"No, ma'am, I don't." Raychel and Draco shared a secret glance. Draco didn't seem annoyed.

"I will be taking ten points from the both of you, for being out of bed after hours, and fifty more from Mr. Malfoy for lying." That was McGonagall's edict. Draco and Raychel groaned. Raychel's three best friends may have been Gryffindors, but she wants the house that she is in to win, even if she wasn't thrilled to be a Slytherin.

"I will inform Professor Snape about you two, and I will send you letters of the date of your detention. Go to your common room now, Mr. Malfoy. Miss Garretson, I will summon your Astronomy notes for you."

"Thank you, Professor."

"Accio Miss Garretson's Astronomy notes!" McGonagall cried. Raychel's parchment came zooming into the room, but not from the Astronomy classroom.

Raychel thanked her again and made her way to the door. Before she left, McGonagall had said, "Miss Garretson, I don't want to have to take points from you in the future."

Raychel started to make her way down to the dungeons. When she was passing the Great Hall to get to the staircase leading to the Slytherin Dungeon, she saw Malfoy. He had waited for her. On the way to their common room, not one word was spoken.

When they were in the common room, Draco did something that Raychel has never seen or heard Draco do in their school year together so far.

"Sorry." He started. "You had it under control. It doesn't seem believable when you think about it. I mean… a dragon."

Raychel smiled, more at the fact that he was apologizing. "It's okay. Really. We'd better get to bed though. It's late."

In truth, neither was tired, but both thought it was a good idea to go to their respective dormitories.

McGonagall had seen something wandering past her classroom door, which Raychel had not shut completely. The figure was not tall enough to be another teacher. She went out and put her hand on the figure's shoulder, as she had done earlier to Draco and Raychel. The figure spun around and Neville Longbottom began to splutter.

While Neville was struggling to get out his reasoning for his little excursion, Harry and Hermione were being led by Filch to McGonagall's office.

_Review please! Review Please! Oh, look I have Tourette's. Not really. Either way, I spent a whole chapter on this, because I can, and in the book she skipped weeks after this, so I can get the story to flow more. Hope you enjoyed….review please!_


	13. Her Favorite Animal

**I do not own Harry Potter. Miz Rowling does, now get off of my back. I own all characters not in the book.**

Harry, Raychel, and Hermione were quite subdued afterwards. Harry was the most subdued because now all Gryffindors besides Ron and Hermione were against him. Draco was annoyed but smug. He had found out about Harry and Hermione getting caught. Ron's hand was back to normal now, so all he could do was wait up for Harry and Hermione when they got back from their detentions. McGonagall had sent the letter to the five students receiving it. In two weeks, they would meet Filch near the Great Hall. They would serve the detention with Hagrid. All with the exception of Draco decided it couldn't be too bad.

"That oaf will probably have us cleaning some sort of dung!" complained Malfoy.

Raychel replied to him, "Relax, it's one night. We deserved it."

Malfoy spluttered on the water he was drinking. "We deserved it? In what way?"

Raychel just grinned. " We got caught."

Detention day finally came. Filch led the five students down to Hagrid's hut, enjoying himself while making them shudder at things about the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid was to fill them in on what _exactly _they would be doing, but for that moment, that was all they knew.

Hagrid explained that a unicorn had been hurt and they were going to try and find it. They would split up. Raychel, Draco, Neville, and Fang was one group. Harry, Hermione, and Hagrid were another.

All of them were delving deeper into the forest. Draco was getting bored, though still definitely nervous. He told Raychel he wanted to scare Neville. She told him not to.

"Let me do it!" He whispered into her ear, giving a slight tickle.

"No!" she retorted. "A unicorn is hurt. We seriously need to find it!"

"What, are they your favorite animal or something?" Draco asked, sneering.

Raychel looked hurt at his jeering expression. "Actually…" she muttered.

Neville was walking at a fast pace, but stumbled often. He was the most nervous by far. Draco decided that the time was ripe. He ran up behind Neville, and grabbed him by the shoulder. Neville yelled quite loudly, breaking the eerie silence of the forest. He fumbled with his wand for a moment, and then after regaining his grip, he shot up red sparks.

It took s few moments to calm Neville down. Draco was just laughing, while Raychel tried to console Neville. The racket that Draco caused was bad for one reason. There was more of a chance that anything, especially whatever had slain the unicorn, knew of their location. She gave Draco a piece of her mind.

"What the bloody hell!?" she whispered. "Everything in the damn forest will know we're here."

He chose not to respond but rather to keep laughing. He stopped when the sound of brambles and twigs being snapped met their ears. Then Hagrid appeared flustered and concerned.

"Who's hurt?" Hagrid demanded seriously.

"No one, Hagrid." Raychel sighed. "Malfoy scared Neville."

Hagrid looked at Malfoy with a glare that took the smirk off of his face. Perhaps it was Hagrid's size that helped intimidate Draco. "All o' yeh," he growled. "Come with me. We'll be lucky if yeh didn' scare away what's bin hurtin' the unicorns."

While falling in step behind Hagrid, Draco walked alongside Raychel, who had her arm around Neville, calming him down.

_Why is she consoling him!?_ Draco decided to take her attention.

"I never knew you liked unicorns," he informed her quietly.

"Well…" She paused, unsure of what to say. "Now you do, I guess."

After meeting back with Harry and Hermione, Hagrid switched Neville for Harry. Hagrid grumbled an apology to Harry for putting him with Malfoy. When Draco was looking away, Harry and Raychel flashed nervous grins at each other. Once again, they all took off into the forest, in search of a hurt unicorn.

Draco and Harry were busy with a stiff conversation, haughty at both ends. It would have bee funny when Raychel fell, grabbing both of their shoulders, consequently taking them down as well. Then they saw the unicorn. Raychel gasped and she could feel tears stinging behind her eyes. It was so beautiful, but so sad. Harry had gasped too, but he also clamped his hand to his scar.

Then, it was heard before it was seen. A cloaked figure just gliding to the slain unicorn. It lowered its head and began to feast on the unicorn's blood. Raychel couldn't stand it. _Why?_ She thought. _It's so beautiful, why would you hurt it?_ Tears began to spill out of her eye, at a slow but steady pace. At the same moment, Harry screamed bloody murder. He was obviously in pain. Draco bolted.

"Harry come _on_!" Raychel yelled, trying to pull his arm. The cloaked figure was making its way towards Harry. Slowly creeping and Harry still would not get up. Raychel pulled and pulled. She began to back away. Leaving Harry was the last thing she had wanted to do. Harry let out another scream. Raychel let out red sparks; a facsimile of what Neville had created earlier. Draco was nowhere in sight.

The figure lowered itself, almost onto Harry, and Raychel screamed for him to move. Then, the sound of hooves pounding the ground became present. Raychel still slowly backing away was passed by a blur, which was the source of the new noise. The creature or whatever it was had fled as the creature with hooves soared towards it. That was the very first time Raychel and Harry had seen a centaur. It began to speak to Harry.

Next thing that Raychel knew was that Harry was on the centaur's back. He walked and came near Raychel who stood where she was. Then Hagrid, Hermione, and Neville came. Draco came from the direction he ran in, most likely when he heard Hagrid speak again. He stood behind Raychel, looking warily at the centaur. Harry hopped off of the centaur, whose name was Firenze's back, when another centaur began to shout at Firenze. The other centaur, Bane greatly disapproved of aiding humans, it seemed.

"Are you okay?" Draco whispered in Raychel's ear, unable to keep his voice from shaking.

"Yeah, you?" she asked, somewhat indifferently because she was far more concerned for Harry. He said yes as well.

When the group began their retreat back to Hagrid's hut, Raychel asked Harry if he was okay. He had said his scar had hurt, and Raychel did not know what to say. Raychel also asked the others if they were alright, and that earned an icy glare from Draco. She looked meaningfully at her friends from Gryffindor and said she'll see them tomorrow, and left with Draco to go to the Slytherin Dungeon.

"I know you're acting, but I hate having to watch it. It almost made me gag," then he snorted. "Anything else new with them."

"No, they're trying to avoid trouble now. Like I said, you are going to make it difficult for any secrets to be unearthed." Raychel smiled coolly and said the password and entered the Slytherin common room. Draco huffily shuffled off towards the boys dormitories, mumbling something about a shower.

Weeks later, Harry was trying to keep to his resolution of not "meddlin' with things that shouldn't be meddled with," as Hagrid had put it. Harry had enough to deal with because finals were approaching fast. One day after Quidditch practice, he sort of flew over the forest to spy on Snape and Quirrell having a private chat.

Harry told his friends what happened that night with the exception of Raychel. She was told the next morning.

"This is it. It's up to Quirrell. If he can stand up to Snape, then the Stone is safe. If not…"

"It'll be gone by next Tuesday," Ron said

"Way to be optimistic, Ron!" Raychel said sardonically.

For the next few weeks, Quirrell was getting thinner much more paranoid. Snape seemed to be getting icier towards all but Slytherins, whom he treated nicely.

During a potions class, George joked about Snape getting ready to propose to her. He had scolded George for his potion being too runny. It was almost the same thickness as Raychel's; and Snape told her that her potion was just perfect. _He really knows how to work with potions_ Raychel thought. Snape was another teacher she had a lot of respect for. She did however feel bad for George. But they were doing review potions, so she blamed it on him talking to her too much and paying less attention to his potion.

In one week, there would be finals.

**I am sooo sorry this one took forever to get out. I am now at my cousin's house and he makes me play Halo with him forever!!! I am going to be working on the next one like hell, and should have it out soon!**

**Reviews please?!**


	14. Distractions and Musical Contraptions

**I do not own Harry Potter, but I own characters that are not in the book are all mine, mmkay.**

**Review please!**

Finals were now over. Harry's scar was now constantly giving him pain, and that was all he was concerned with.

One day while sitting under a tree near the Great Lake, Harry jumped up.

"Why didn't I think of it before?!" Harry burst out angrily, just as sudden as his movements.

He began a brisk walk down the familiar path to Hagrid's cabin. Hermione, Ron, and Raychel tried to keep up with him. They fired off a barrage of "Harry, what's going on's?" at him, but he just shook his head.

At Hagrid's cabin Harry banged furiously on the door.

"Harry! What're you tryin' ter do, band down me door?" Hagrid laughed merrily at his own pun, but then his smiling face turned to a look of concern. He then asked what his three friends that were out of breath from trying to keep up with him have been trying to ask. "Harry, what's wrong?"

"What did the stranger that you won Norbert from look like?" Harry asked.

"He kept his hood up, an' the pub was all dark. Yeh get lots o' funny folk down in the Hog's Head." Hagrid looked puzzled.

"Did you mention Hogwarts at all when you were talking?!" Harry quizzed.

"It might o' came up. I can't remember too much; he kept buyin' me drinks. Then he told me we could play cards for a dragon egg." Then Hagrid smiled. "He asked if I thought I could handle a dragon meself, and then I told him that after Fluffy, a dragon'd be no problem at all." Hagrid paused. "Then I told 'im, 'The secret to caring for magical beasts is to know how ter soothe 'em. Like Fluffy for example, you just need ter play him some music, and he falls asl—WAIT! I shouldn'ta said that."

All four friends exchanged scared glances with each other. Everything seemed to click into space. They ran out of Hagrid's hut, and Hagrid tried to ask them what they were going to do, but they had no time to speak.

"We _have_ to go to Dumbledore now," said Harry. "Snape is trying to get the stone for Voldemort." Hermione and Ron flinched at the name, but Raychel wasn't paying attention. She had seen Snape coming, and he might hear what they were saying about him.

"He is trying to aid Voldemort," another shudder from the other two, "and kill me." At that Hermione gasped and said '_No!_' and Ron went pale. Raychel had to act now.

"Professor Snape!" she called, causing the others to look up. "I had to ask you something." She informed him hurriedly. With her hand she waved the others to move away. "Can I talk to you about my Potions final?" She began asking him meaningless questions about the third year final. It was all just a ploy to waste time, as she knew she did well on it; it was her forte after all.

After successfully distracting Snape long enough to let her friends get away, she left Snape in the corridor. She hurriedly went off in the direction she thought her friends went.

She came up behind them in a corridor as a flustered McGonagall walked away.

"Dumbledore's gone!" The three of them exclaimed in unison.

"What?" Raychel gasped.

"The Ministry sent an owl for him. He left early this morning."

"Then—then the stone is going to be gone tonight." Ron shuddered.

"Harry, I don't think Snape is the one going to steal it." Raychel almost winced from at the look Harry shot her.

"Raychel, all the signs point—"She interrupted him.

"I know what it might seem, but Harry, it isn't feasible!" Raychel said, a higher voice, "Yes, it is very possible that someone is going to steal it, because it is so convenient that Professor Dumbledore isn't here."

"Raychel, we are going to try and stop Snape," he said Snape with a finality that made it show how set in his ways that he was.

_These are my friends. They swore they saw Snape attempting to curse Harry off of his broomstick. They swore that Snape let the troll in on Halloween. They swore that he tried to get past Fluffy, reason why his leg was in the mess that Harry had reported it as that week. These are my friends_ Raychel thought; _I will go with them and have their backs._

"I'll help you guys in any way I can." Raychel told them solidly.

"Thanks. And thanks for the diversion with Snape before." Her three friends all smiled at her.

"When and where will I meet you guys?" Raychel asked.

"Well, we're not meeting per se." Then Harry went into the plan he had hatched in his mind. Hermione was to be waiting outside of the Professor's lounge, and Ron and Harry would wait outside the Third Corridor to ward him off if he tried anything. Raychel would decide she would cause a commotion in a corridor far from the aforementioned one so teachers would go there. It was also decided that if things were to go wrong, they would meet outside of the Library.

Harry and Ron had gotten points taken away from them by McGonagall, and were shooed away. Hermione had given her lie to Professor Flitwick about her test and that did absolutely nothing to prevent Snape running out of the room toward the sounds of destruction, caused by Raychel. Quirrell went out of the lounge, shakily, but in an opposite direction of the noise, but Hermione was not there to see that. She was on her way to the library, where it Raychel was waiting anxiously. Hermione was surprised to see Ron and Harry there as well.

"Our plan got trashed by McGonagall." Ron muttered both angrily and exasperated.

"Snape ran off while Professor Flitwick was making me wait." Hermione groaned.

"Well, there is a Fanged Frisbee flying around, all of the suits of armor are on the floor, and a ton of Dungbombs to sort out where I was." Raychel grinned, hoping to bring some sort of relief to the tension that decided to wrap around them.

That did plan did not work out, because Harry said seriously, "Well, I'm going through there tonight. I need to stop Voldemort!" Harry professed with passion, not found in most eleven year old boys. "He tried to kill me before didn't he? I mean if he has the Stone, who says he wouldn't try for a second chance?"

A silent agreement was made. They all hurried to the third corridor. The door was ajar.

The four friends pushed their way into the room, Harry first; he has whipped out the flute Hagrid had carved out for him and quickly began to play it as Fluffy began to let out growls and grumbles of warning. Ron and Hermione hurried forward and pushed and pulled a giant paw off of the trapdoor.

Raychel opened the trapdoor while Harry was playing the flute, tunelessly. _He's better at Quidditch_ Raychel thought almost laughing.

When it was open Harry walked over, flute still in mouth, and looked down the long tunnel downward that the trapdoor concealed. Harry pointed to him self while playing the instrument one handedly and then used the same hand to point down.

"You want to go down first?" Ron asked incredulously

Harry pulled his mouth from the flute and said, "If it's safe, I will call for you guys." Hermione looked nothing less then frightened and Fluffy began to growl once more.

Harry handed the nearest person the flute, who was Hermione, and without further ado, Harry jumped into the hole. He sped down at a fast speed hoping a trampoline or a million pillows were awaiting him. Then he landed. He looked up at the hole in which he had just jumped through. It looked smaller than a Galleon. He called up to his friends, "Come down, it's a soft landing!" He was almost laughing at his luck.

Ron landed next to him, Raychel in front of him. Then Hermione announced her arrival as she squealed when she landed.

"Good thing this stuff is here, or else we would have died. We must be miles under the school!" Ron exclaimed merrily.

"Good thing!" Hermione screamed in horror at Ron, as Raychel looked at him as if she couldn't believe her eyes.

Harry and he were being wrapped up in the plant in which they had landed on.

"That's Devil Snare!" Raychel cried. "Oh no, what do we do?"

"Hold on, I think I remember what Professor Sprout taught us about it!" Hermione told them. _I hope she thinks well under pressure…or in this case, possible suffocation._ Raychel thought.

"It hates the sun! But I have no fire!" Hermione whined helplessly

Ron began to squirm and attempted to resist, but the Devil's Snare was persistent. Harry saw that out of the corner of his eye, and screamed disbelievingly at Hermione, "Are you a witch or _not_?"

"Oh," and she grabbed her wand with the hand that had less vines creeping all over it, and produced her signature blue bell flames at which the Devil's Snare let them go, and they all hit the floor below the plant.

It was a small relief to be free from the plant, but knowing what was ahead of them brought each of them back to reality.

**Hey, hope you liked. Please review with suggestions, Constructive criticism, and maybe even positive feedback! (?) Thanks for reading.**


	15. Out From the Trapdoor

**D to the isclaimer******** I own not Harry Potter, but I own what ever isn't in the books. Like Raychel for example.**

As the four friends ventured into the next room, they all heard the sounds of wings. There was a large door, from ceiling to floor. Ron pushed on the door, and Hermione gave a loud tutting sound, moved him aside and pulled.

As the door opened, the scene of a large room with what seemed to be thousands of jewel bright birds flying this way and that.

"_Birds_ defending the Philosopher's Stone?" Ron asked incrulously.

"They probably would do a better job than you defending it, Ronald," Hermione shot at him. Ron gave her his best haughty look he could muster while Raychel laughed at their bickering.

"They are keys, not birds!" cried Harry, causing the three others to turn their heads up and examine the flying objects more closely.

"So I'm guessing one of them opens the door down there?" Raychel asked Harry. All three of them looked at Harry as a kind of leader at that moment. He was the most compassionate, so he deserved the position. After all, it _was_ something personal.

"Let's go and have a look at the lock, so we know what we're after."

While jogging across the room, Ron pointed to a pile of brooms laid off to the side. They knew what color the key should be, and what style. _It's funny how much you could tell a key by it's lock,_ thought Hermione.

Each person grabbed a broom and kicked off. Harry, Ron, and Raychel had good balance, but Hermione was quite shaky. The former had a lot of time on brooms under their belts where as the latter had none not including Flying lessons.

The key was found and caught by none other than Harry, the seeker. Go figure. They opened the door and a most putrid smell filled everyone's senses. A mountain troll much larger than 20 feet lay unconscious on the floor. Hermione whimpered. Good thing they didn't have to tackle that one.

They made their way through the room, with their robes pulled over their face. In the next room, it seemed the floor was transformed into a life size chess board. On a whim, Raychel walked all the way down the board to see whether or not she could just walk through. Her thoughts were confirmed when the back row of chess pieces would not let her cross.

She turned and looked at her friends if to say "Well?"

"We have to play our way across." Ron said. All of them including Ron knew who was going to lead and call moves. None of them has beaten Ron yet in Wizard's Chess.

Ron proved to be a great leader at chess. In the end Harry was free to call a check mate on the king, but it came as a price. Ron had to give himself up to the queen. Hermione was terrified at that and begged him not to. He just grimaced and moved himself into a position of taking. The queen showed no mercy upon knocking Ron out. When she dragged his limp, motionless body to the side, Harry yelled for Hermione to stay put, because the match was still in play. Harry was free to take the king. He dropped his sword in recognition in losing. When Harry gave the okay, they all ran to Ron's side. Hermione's eyes were filled with tears and Raychel looked at his head, and stated the obvious at his unconsiousness.

"We have to go on," Harry said, clearly wanting to stay at his best mate's side.

Harry began to walk shakily towards the next door. Hermione seemed torn between Ron's flaccid body and Harry's mission to save the Philosopher's Stone.

"Hermione, go on, help Harry. You guys are both smart and can work together to solve whatever will come. Besides these were built for one person to get through, you guys are two people, so you have the odds on your side. I'll stay with Ron and try to help him." Raychel said hurriedly. "I'll try to help him come to."

"Are you sure?" Hermione asked

"Surer than sure," and Raychel gave an uneasy grin. She got up and beckoned Harry and Hermione to come to her, and when they did she gave them hugs and wished them luck.

Hermione and Harry went on and Raychel did her best tending to Ron. Since she went to Saint Mungo's when she was eight years old, she knew she wanted to be a Healer. She loved helping people and making them feel better, and that's what Healer Jeremy Feurizen did for her. She felt Ron's forehead where he was hit. It was just beginning to swell. She wished she learned how to conjure things out of thin air so she could put ice on Ron's head. She began to move him away from the rubble of chess pieces that were taken or sacrificed.

Meanwhile, Harry and Hermione were trying to figure out which potion would get them forward and backward. Hermione had finally figured it out. Harry told her to take the one that would tak her backwards, and he would go onward toward where Snape would be waiting. Hermione wished him luck and said encouraging words to instill confidence upon Harry. She swallowed the liquid inside her vial, and shuddered as liquid ice pulsed through her veins and arteries. Then she tentatively walked into the fire, leading back into the room of life size chess pieces.

Harry moved on forward, ready to take on Snape. With the way he treated him all year, it would feel good to let it all out. When he saw the familiar turban upon the man that was looking baffled upon the mirror of Erised, as Dumbledore had called it, Harry became as confused as Quirrell looked.

Harry and Quirrell faced off verbally. Harry had found out that Snape, who shared their mutual hate, was not trying to knock him off his broom, rather he was trying to save him. Quirrell let in the mountain troll that united his four friends in him, almost killing them in the process. Quirrell was in it for the Philosopher's Stone. He wanted it not for him, but for Lord Voldemort.

As he began to unwrap his turban and turned around, Harry saw the ugliest thing he's ever seen. A face just protruding from another man's head. No nose, red eyes nothing more than slits, and pure evil etched in to it, permanently.

Harry was forced to look in the mirror of Erised, and saw himself putting the blood red stone into his pocket. While his reflection betrayed what he was really doing, he felt the weight of the stone drop into his pocket.

Then Quirrell and Harry faced off, but Quirrell could not bear to touch Harry. He was doing all he could however to hold Harry down. The closeness to Lord Voldemort was antagonizing Harry because of the pain in his scar. He could barely keep his eyes open, so he grasped every bit of Quirrell's person, knowing he hit the jackpot when he heard Quirrell scream the pain that he was feeling.

As Harry blacked out, Raychel and Hermione were holding Ron up by the shoulders. It was agreed that they would take two brooms up to the trapdoor. Hermione had the flute still, so she would quickly play it once up there.

Halfway across the room of flying keys, the door on the other side opened. The tall, sweeping figure of Dumbledore swiftly crossed the room. "Where's Harry?" he demanded.

"He went through the fire." Hermione said obediently.

For a moment, it seemed that Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, but surely it was a trick of the light. Dumbledore then asked, "You plan on taking Mr. Weasley up the trapdoor by brooms?" He waved his wand and two brooms soared over. "I must be off," and with that, he crossed the room, opened the door, then shut it behind him as he entered.

"Raychel, I'll carry the brooms to the other room, and you grab Ron." Raychel silently did what was asked of her, and they made their way into the area in which they first landed, which seemed forever ago.

Hermione conjured the flames at the Devil's Snare of her own accord. Raychel positioned Ron upon a broom, and took the space behind him. Hermione unsteadily sat on the broom she was holding, and began to hover. She pocketed her wand and took out Harry's flute. Raychel followed slowly behind her, holding Ron from behind the waist so he wouldn't fall off.

Hermione reached the top faster than Raychel did, and began to play the flute. Fluffy began to snore once again, and Raychel finally burst through with Ron. She landed and had her arm under his armpit, and Hermione did the same. In that short moment, Fluffy's steady snored became slightly irregular. They hurried their way out of the corridor and to the Infirmary wing. They had passed Professor McGonagall along the way and she gasped and put a hand over her heart. She helped them by saying _Locomotor Mortis_, and having Ron hover along next to them. Hermione and Raychel looked at each other and almost laughed at how they must have lost their cool and not used magic to bring Ron to the Infirmary.

When under Madame Pomfrey's watch, all three of them had to stay at least the night. Ron was still unconscious, but Madame Pomfrey assured the two fretful girls that Ron would be okay. They each laid down on adjacent beds and didn''t bother changing clothes. They talked quickly about Harry and if he was alright, and then let sleep have it's way with them.

Sometime during the early hours of morning, Harry was brought in, unconscious, by Dumbledore. Dumbledore laid Harry down on a bed near his friends. He watched Harry for a moment, and sighed.

**Review please! Suggestions and Constructive Criticism, as always. A you can see, we're on year two now…or will be within a chapter or two!**


	16. Quidditch at the Burrow

**I in no way, own Harry Potter. J.K Rowling does, I only own characters not in the book.**

Weeks after that moment in the hospital, where the four friends lay in hospital beds, four sat at Ron's house chatting.

It was the first time since the train ride back to King's Cross that they even saw each other.

Ron's parents let him have Raychel and Hermione over for a day so they could hang out after that ordeal in June and after breaking Harry out from Privet Drive, which was told to the girls in great detail. Ron and Harry then began to talk about Quidditch and then they decided to actually play. Raychel did not have her broom, so she denied, and Hermione didn't really like to fly. As the boys were walking out, someone covered Raychel's eyes, and another person covered Hermione's.

"Guess who!" Came the voices of George and Fred.

"Hi Fred. Hi George!" Said Raychel.

"Are you lot going to watch us play Quidditch?" asked Fred

Hermione looked at Raychel, who smiled. "Would I _want_ to watch you play Quidditch?" Raychel asked jokingly.

"Of course. You know you both want to see us sweating and what not. If you girls are lucky, we might even take our shirts off." Said Fred, grinning.

Hermione looked slightly flustered and Raychel pretended to dry heave. "Please, I almost threw up."

The twins looked affronted and then smiled. "Fine then, don't watch—"started Fred and George finished, "but you'll be missing out." Fred smiled and walked away, and George winked.

Ginny came down, or rather peeked around the corner, and apparently the coast was clear because she waved sheepishly at the other girls.

"You're Ginny, right?" Raychel asked.

"Yeah, you're Hermione," she pointed to Hermione and then pointed to Raychel, "You're Raychel."

The two second years nodded and smiled at her. Then they all began to talk for the better part of an hour and a half. Then, Ginny said, "Let's go see the Quidditch they're _attempting_ to play." They all chuckled. All three girls got along quite well.

As they walked into the little clearing that doubled as a Quidditch pitch, they saw Fred, George, Harry, and Ron playing a dysfunctional version of Quidditch. In fact it wasn't Quidditch at all. Ron was keeping and the other three were taking shots at him. The boys waved at the three female newcomers. Ginny moved back slightly. She had let on earlier that she as fascinated by Harry. But it was a secret between them.

"I knew you wouldn't be able to resist us." Fred called.

"Ron, do you need a rest?" Raychel yelled up to him

"Why, do you want to play Keeper?" Ron asked back.

"Sure!" she exclaimed.

"Do either of you two want to play?" asked Harry to Ginny and Hermione.

Characteristic of Ginny around Harry, she shook her head vigorously; a no. Hermione did the same as Ron landed.

Raychel took his broom after dropping her bag onto the ground and flew up to their makeshift posts. George told her, "I may not be a chaser usually, but I could beat you any day."

Fred flew to hover next to George, and Harry was behind him. "Weasley, Weasley, Potter," she started, "If it is your wish to embarrass yourself in front of that lot, I won't let you get away without it." All of this cockiness was in good fun.

Fred was up first and she missed blocking his shot by a few inches, and this lack of saving it brought out appreciative whoops from the other two in line. George came up next, and she blocked his shot with authority. Down on the ground, Hermione applauded her.

Harry came up and Raychel punched it away. This went on for more or less than fifteen minutes. She let some in, but the majority of shots were blocked. She made a great first impression in the area of Quidditch.

"I never knew you could play Keeper like that," George told her during dinner that night. After dinner the girls would take Floo powder back to their homes. Mr. Weasley used connections at the Ministry to have their grate connected to the Granger's fire place.

"You learn something new everyday," Raychel grinned.

"Did you girls have fun here today?" Mrs. Weasley asked. And in response, both girls nodded and said yes in unison. Then Mr. Weasley began to ask Hermione more questions about Muggles.

After several helpings of dessert, it was time for each of the girls to go. Everyone gave them hugs and said their goodbyes. Harry of course was staying.

"We'll see you girls next week in Diagon Alley, right?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

Both girls agreed.

Hermione had left, and Raychel was about to when she exclaimed, "Bloody Hell! I've left my bag at the Quidditch pitch." She sighed and then told the Weasley's and Harry, "I'll be right back."

Mrs. Weasley murmured an okay, and as she was making her way to the door, Fred and George followed her and announced that they would escort her.

If she were walking alone, she would have walked at a faster pace, but with the twins, she walked at a nice slow pace, great for conversations.

"We were just thinking," began Fred, and then George finished. "When is our favorite Slytherin's birthday?"

"August 3rd." She replied, "Why?

"Isn't that the day that we're meeting in Diagon Alley?" Fred asked George.

"Yes, I think it is," George answered and nudged Raychel with his elbow.

"What do you want?" They both demanded suddenly, in unison making her giggle.

"Absolutely nothing." She told them. Modesty was one of her vices…or assets, whatever way you look at it.

"We'll find you something." And George winked at her.

"Where in Bloody Hell did my bag go," Raychel cried as she reached the spot where she dropped it.

"You mean the bag that was here?!" asked Fred pointing to the spot.

"We brought that in on the way back, we figured it was someone's." George said, suppressing a laugh.

"That was a dirty trick. If I had my wand, I'd hex you both." And she laughed. "Where is it then?"

"We put it in our room." Raychel rolled her eyes. _Typical Fred and George._

They walked back talking about nothing in particular and let the nice summer breeze blow over them until they reached the Burrow.

"We forgot we brought it up to our room!" Fred said brightly to the Weasley's now seated in the sitting room.

"We'll be right back." George said, steering Raychel up the narrow stairs.

When in their room, she saw a bunch of random things, some that looked charred and burnt, and others in weathered conditions.

"This is more than just a room, I see. It's your lab!"

"Shh," George put a finger up to her lips. "It's a secret."

Finally they gave her back her bag. Fred led the way down the stairs, Raychel followed him, and George was the last. By the fireplace once more, he ruffled her hair and told her to stay out of trouble. It was so paternal like, that it was quite funny.

Raychel bid her farewells to all once more, and gave Ginny a quick hug; she felt bad that she was so nervous around Harry.

**Review please; suggestions; constructive criticism!!?? It will be much appreciated!**


	17. Birthday Brawl

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. J.K Rowling owns all rights to it.**

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"Raychel" yelled Holly Garretson. "Raychel, wake up!" She poked her grunting daughter's semi-sleeping person in the side. Raychel squealed but still stood stubbornly under the covers. "Tyler!" she crowed. "Help me."

In moments, her husband walked into Raychel's room. His wife gave him a half smile that only meant one thing in this situation.

"_Aguamenti_!" They both cried, and Raychel screamed and rolled out of bed, tangled in her sheets.

"Getemorfme!" came Raychel's defeated whimper.

Her parents began to laugh as they untangled their sodden twelve year old from her equally sodden blanket. "Well, honey…Happy Birthday!" They both exclaimed. "We're getting you a gift in Diagon Alley today. We have to leave soon; we're going to meet your friend Ron's parents, the Weasleys!" They seemed excited. They always tried to be active in Raychel's life, and she liked it. They weren't the smothering type, but they put in just enough effort.

"What time are we leaving?" Raychel muttered; sleep heavy in her voice.

"Well in an hour or so, but we made you breakfast!" Raychel's mum smiled. 'You're favorite, waffles and ice cream." That perked Raychel up faster than a speeding Bludger.

"Let me get dressed." She had washed up and was ready in about fifteen minutes; that was a milestone. Her hair had grown during the last year, and she got her mother to cut it back to her chin length liking a few nights prior.

She finished her waffles with great gusto and then went to her hearth in the den and said, "The Leaky Cauldron!" and got transported to the aforementioned location.

Her parents arrived after her. The Weasley's had said they would wait if they got there earlier, and Hermione was supposed to be there soon with her parents. Her parents ordered drinks for themselves and got Raychel a butterbeer. She downed that fast. Traveling by Floo Powder made her thirsty.

Finally, after about a ten minute wait, Hermione came with her parents through the creaky doors of The Leaky Cauldron. Hermione gave Raychel a quick hello hug and then they began introductions. Ten minutes after that, the Weasleys came spilling out of the fire place.

"Hi, you must be Mr. Weasley." Raychel's father had stepped forward, but Mr. Weasley looked nervous.

"We can do the introductions later. Harry's never traveled by Floo Powder before, and he just got lost. We must find him!" With that, everyone filed out into the alley in the back. One of the adults tapped the traditional pattern on the bricks and then they transformed into an archway.

Hermione took her parents and dragged them along, saying she'd look in this direction. She didn't want them to get lost in a Wizarding area. Mrs. Weasley took Ginny, and Percy and Mr. Weasley went another way. This left Ron, the twins, and Raychel.

"Happy Birthday, Raychel!" The three Weasley boys said to her. Ron grinned at her, Fred winked, and George ruffled her hair.

She thanked them and told them that they should concentrate on finding Harry.

"Maybe he didn't go too far." Fred pondered aloud.

"Yeah, maybe he got transported into the Jambol and Japes joke shop!" And with one twin steering Ron and the other Raychel, they entered to shop.

"You guys," Ron hissed, "We're supposed to be finding Harry. Not shopping for little trinkets."

"Relax ickle Ronniekins." And Fred brushed him off.

The twins were happier then ever in the store meanwhile, Ron and Raychel kept throwing impatient glances over at the other two, and then exchanged glances that clearly said, "I can't believe them."

They finally finished and they tucked their packages inside their robes and herded the younger second years outside.

"You two really know how to dawdle," scolded George. Then as Raychel was going to respond indignantly, a package was shoved into her hands.

"Happy Birthday," they all said. Apparently Ron was in on it too, because George said he'd chipped in as well. And to think, he had acted the part so well. They had gotten her an assorted bag of goodies from the joke shop. "Put it away, or else Mum'll think we haven't been searching for Harry."

In the main part of the alley, they caught sight of Mr. Weasley and Percy and joined with them. In a moments time they heard Hermione's screams of Harry's name.

They followed the sound of her voice and they recognized Hagrid with his tall, shaggy frame. Harry was all covered in soot and Hermione had just fixed his glasses. Raychel and the others greeted him, and helped dust him off, until Mrs. Weasley came over and fussed over him, and cleaning him magically.

After Hagrid telling of Harry's whereabouts, they all split up and would meet at Flourish and Blotts later on. Harry told his friends about seeing Draco Malfoy in some dark store called Borgin and Burkes.

Hermione had given her three Muggle novels to read, which Raychel would start while on the train back to Hogwarts. Harry stopped by in the paper shop, and bought her a new quill, black with a dark green tip ("Green for our favorite Slytherin" they all chimed in). That was one of their nicknames for Raychel. Besides her, they disliked all other Slytherins, so it became like an inside joke. He bought her two pots on ink to go with the quill. One wrote in rainbow, and the other was a sparkly silver, glitter ink.

"I'm going to use that on my next potions essay!" She laughed.

When everything that they all needed to do was done, they kept true to their word and met with the other Weasley's at Flourish and Blotts. There was quite a commotion in the book store. It seemed that, Gilderoy Lockhart was there.

Hermione turned pink as he walked to the desk, preparing to do book signings. Raychel pretended to gag, which the two boys found funny. The loud laughing among the mild, feminine chatter caught the famous wizard's attention.

"It can't be…Harry Potter!" and with that, Hermione, Ron, and Raychel's famous best friend was sucked into the public eye. Raychel spotted her parents and went up to them. They held up a package of what she knew were books.

Her mother held out the package she was holding, "These are your books for this year." Then her father held out his package, "Happy Birthday"

"Thank you guys, really." She gave them both pecks on the cheek and an awkward hug do a crowd that could easily make a person claustrophobic.

She stood with them until Lockhart finished putting Harry in public view. Then she would look around at some books. Friends and distant relatives from America had sent her some money, and she could always do with something to read. Finally looking around, and seeing nothing that jumped out at her at a reasonable price for a twelve year old. As she walked to the entrance way, there was a squabble. The two people involved seemed to be Mr. Weasley and another man with long, sleek blonde hair that came past his shoulders.

"Git off 'im, Malfoy" Hagrid growled at him, pulling him off of Mr. Weasley, wrinkling his clothes.

As he stood up, he brushed the wrinkles away from his clothes. He and Mr. Weasley exchanged a few more words, the photographer that photographed Lockhart and Harry before, back in action. Draco made his way to Raychel and greeted her, whom she greeted back quietly. Her friends understood that she acted for a reason, but she was quite embarrassed to be addressed by him after what his father did to her friend's father. Then, without warning he turned to Harry and began to taunt him. Ginny had piped up, earning more taunting from Draco.

"Draco, shut up!" hissed Raychel in a deadly, low hiss that none but him had heard. He looked up, eyes locking with Raychel's, and grinned. "See you at school."

**Leave me comments with whatever! Hope you enjoyed.**


	18. Missing:Harry and Ron

**J.K Rowling has the rights to Harry Potter. Get off my back please and thanks.**

Raychel made it before all of her friends to the train. Her parents had an appointment for something or other, and could not see her off. She didn't mind it though. They Disapparated after giving her a kiss on the cheek each and a tight hug. _Merlin, I love them_ she thought.

There were very little people there this early, so she went and found a compartment. Hopefully Hermione, or Ron and Harry, or Fred and George, or Ginny would show up before—

"Hey, Raychel," came the drawling voice of Draco Malfoy. And with that, he made his way into the compartment followed by an assortment of Slytherins from their year, and a few older kids.

They all chattered, and Raychel was fussing, internally. _Why? I just want to sit with my friends._

She did a lot of thinking during the summer when she wasn't reading or concocting potions with her father. She finally held pride in being a Slytherin. _Sure, there were a lot bad wizards and witches associated with it, but there were some good things. After all, Snape was a great potioneer and Harry was wrong, it was Quirrell all along!_

She also decided that Draco is different around the other Slytherins then when he was alone with her. But they can be nothing more than acquaintances when she feeds him lies. It wouldn't be fair, not that he was ever fair to her best friends.

Later on, the train began to fill up even more and was about to go. Raychel participated in some conversation because they were fellow Slytherins after all. Besides, why can't we all be friends? _Who are you trying to kid?_ Raychel asked herself.

Finally the train began to move, and there were still straggling kids who needed a compartment. She saw a glimpse of fiery red hair as she looked up. She was saved, whichever Weasley it was. She would go back and forth saying she would go to the bathroom when she left the compartment of what seemed to be a lot of the Slytherin second years. Raychel was surprised to see Tina Lenicks was no where in site. She'd sit it out for a bit and converse, than find someone.

Hermione had found a seat with Ginny and they talked. They found neither hide nor hair of Raychel, Ron or Harry, and were getting concerned.

"They were right behind us," Ginny stated, for the umpteenth time.

Hermione and Ginny had shared a compartment with Hermione's fellow second-year Gryffindors, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, Lavender Brown, and Parvati Patil. Parvati's twin sister Padma was there for a short while, but left to sit with her fellow Ravenclaw. The other four were talking about other things as Ginny and Hermione had their conversation.

When the food trolley came, Raychel thought it was more than due to look for her friends. "Raychel," Draco called a she slid the compartment door open, "Trip Potter or something for me, will you?" And the compartment was filled with laughter, but Pansy Parkinson's shrill, exaggerated giggle was the loudest and most obnoxious.

She passed George and Fred's compartment first. She stopped in to say hi. They had the compartment to themselves and Lee Jordan. They were playing a game of Exploding Snap.

Just as she said hello, George patted the seat next to him in a motion for to sit, because he had the entire side of the compartment to himself. That one moment was costly though, because the cards that he had exploded in his face.

"Nice one," Raychel smiled appreciatively.

"Did you like our present?" the twins asked in unison.

Raychel told them that she loved it. And she played one game of Exploding Snap, which Lee had lost. As they were playing the game, she had told them why she wasn't sitting with Ron and her other Gryffindor friends in her year.

"I have to keep my act up." Raychel muttered. She thought it would be easy, and truthfully, it was sort of easy at first, but she seriously doubted that he would believe her stories forever.

After done with a second game of which Raychel lost, she left to go find her other friends. Fred and George had said they did not see Ron or Harry after they crossed the barrier.

Neville had lost Trevor again, but was sure it was in the compartment somewhere. A small scream of fright made him look up from his futile search, banging his head along the way.

"Raychel! You found Trevor!" Neville exclaimed with glee.

Raychel scanned the compartment once more, which wasn't necessary. Harry and Ron weren't there. She was just about to make a comment on that when,

"Have you seen Ron or Harry?" It was Ginny who asked.

"Neither of them was here with you guys?" Raychel looked quizzically at every face shaking their heads at her.

They all began to speculate, but came up with a plausible solution.

"What if he flew on his broom, with Ron on his back!?" Exclaimed Neville in awe, but the idea was quickly shunned. Why would they need to fly there after all, when they were going through the barrier right after Ginny?

Raychel left, and the Gryffindors and Ginny understood why. She made it back to the Slytherin compartment, and as she opened the door she said, "We're nearly there, the conductor suspects." No questions would be asked hopefully. With that announcement, the crowded compartment felt even more crowded because of everyone attempting to get their trunks down, and putting on their school clothes.

Sitting at the Slytherin table during the Sorting Ceremony, Raychel scanned the Gryffindor table for her two missing friends, but didn't see them. She looked around at the familiar hall, and saw that at the Teacher's Table, Professor Snape wasn't there either. Ginny was one of the last to get sorted, and she too became a Gryffindor like the rest of her family. _They must be proud,_ Raychel thought.

Throughout dinner, she was engaged in conversation with various Slytherins, and noted that Snape showed up at one point or another.

Hermione sat with Neville and they were constantly looking for Harry or Ron. Fred and George squeezed in near the two, and also were worried for where Harry and Ron were. But that thought was erased from their mind as Ginny was made a Gryffindor. Hermione looked up and clapped for Ginny as she made her way down, and then realized that not only are her friends missing, Professor Snape was not at the Head Table either.


	19. Detention and Ice Cream

**If I was J.K Rowling, I'd own the rights to Harry Potter…but I'm not, so I guess I don't.**

Rumor had gone around in all of the common rooms the next morning that the famous Harry Potter and his friend Ron Weasley had flown a car into the Whomping Willow, which is why they were not aboard the Hogwarts Express.

Malfoy was flabbergasted when he found out they weren't expelled. Throughout the morning's breakfast of toast and eggs, he said that he was going to write his father about the injustice of it all. He also had a plan to tryout for Slytherin's Quidditch team. This was all in due time of course, but Raychel figured she should give Harry a heads up, whenever she saw him, that is.

Schedules were handed out that morning by each house's Head Advisor. Raychel looked over her schedule; she had Potions with the Gryffindor fourth years. She was happy about that. She snatched Draco's schedule from him and he futilely attempted to get it back.

"You have it with Gryffindor too?" Raychel asked.

"Have _what_ with Gryffindor Raychel?" Draco demanded back exasperatedly.

"Potions."

"I wouldn't know. I'm not allowed to look at my own schedule." He said that with a grin but he hid the grin quickly. _Does he ever smile when he isn't making fun of someone?_ Raychel asked herself inwardly.

The first class that they had was Transfiguration. The Gryffindors had Herbology with the Hufflepuffs.

Raychel had Potions while her fellow first years had break. She made her way to the Potions dungeons. She was quite early, so she picked a seat, the same from the previous year. She greeted Professor Snape and he nodded back. Fred, George, and Lee sauntered in a few moments later. They all made to sit at tables around Raychel, but Snape was far too quick to let them pull that off.

"And where do you think your sitting Weasley? Jordan?" Snape eyed Fred and Lee who were directly in front of George and Raychel. "Miss Garretson has it correct as does your clone. You are to sit in the same assigned seats as last year.

Fred shook his head with a wry smile. "Different year, same shit." This was said loud enough for the four to enjoy it, but not for Snape to hear it. They all sniggered.

George and Raychel began to converse until Snape had quieted the whole class. A new year of potions had just begun.

"So Potter, what're you too good for the rest of us Hogwarts kids? You can't ride on the train like every other student? You're above us now, is that it? Saint Potter." Draco spat on the ground in between Harry and himself. It actually wasn't just them two. Hermione and Ron were on Harry's side as Goyle and Crabbe were on Draco's. And Pansy Parkinson along with Tina Lenicks was inching closer to what looked promising as a form of entertainment. Harry chose to ignore Malfoy.

"I can't believe you didn't get expelled. From what I heard, you and Weasleby here only got a detention." Draco pushed on, now looking at Hermione. "Really Granger, you must be practicing self control, because I've never seen or heard you keep that fat mouth of your shut for so long." Draco's "posse" began to cackle as if this one sided conversation was the most comical and engaging ever. Harry, Ron, and Hermione got up and walked away.

Draco's smile turned sour when his entertainment just walked away. Pansy Parkinson was now right next to him. "That was really funny Draco," and she batted her eyelashes.

Draco saw her and just looked at her, but then turned to laugh with Crabbe and Goyle. Girls were not really something he thought about or longed for at the moment, so Pansy had created an awkward moment for him.

An extremely amusing potions class washed all thoughts clear of Raychel's mind. George had tried to sabotage her perfect potion by attempting to drop a few extra ingredients in her cauldron. Every time he'd try, she'd grab whatever from his hand, and tossed it into his. He never minded until the end, when Snape was sneering at his potion. "Put this in a vial, Weasley and put it by my desk. Don't be surprised when you get a T." And Snape stalked off to torment other Gryffindors. Raychel never saw him as bad for favoring Slytherins because teachers do it all the time…except for McGonagall.

As George ladled his potion something happened that put Raychel and him both into hysterics. His ladle had deteriorated and the potion turned rock solid. Snape took of a large amount of points from Gryffindor and George had to do detention with Snape that night.

Walking out of the classroom, they were all still laughing. "Raych, your common room is somewhat near his office right?" and she nodded. "Wait for me there. Around nine o'clock."

"Okay," she obliged knowing she'll have to be stealthy.

At the library that night, they were already deep in homework. Around seven they left, to their separate common rooms. Raychel was told in full about Ron and Harry's near death experience the night before.

In the Slytherin common room, Draco asked about Harry and Ron. She told him that nothing happened on the way to Hogwarts, so maybe he'd stop prying.

Draco knew that when he made fun of her Gryffindor friends it bothered her a little bit. Truth be told, if he notices that it bothers her, she's letting too much show on her face. She resents that fact, which is another reason she can't see Draco as a friend.

"Know what I did during break today?" Draco asked her while she was putting finishing touches on an essay. She motioned with her hand for him to continue; he started, but looked at Crabbe and Goyle, and on cue, they began to laugh.

"I made fun of them, Saint Potter, The Weasel, and that Mudblood." And he laughed.

Raychel tolerates most things he says, but when he called Hermione a Mudblood, she nearly lost it. "Shut up, Draco! Don't call her that. I know I only _pretend_," Draco smiled at that, to which she scowled, "to be their friend, but why must you go as low as that?"

"Because she _is_ below us. You and I, and Crabbe and Goyle here, are _pure_bloods. She's tainted by Muggles." Raychel tried to compose herself.

"Draco, she may be born from Muggles, but she got a 112 percent on her Charms final last year. What did you get? If I'm not mistaken, you got an eighty eight?" she asked coolly.

'Eighty nine, actually." he said, a pink tinge to his cheeks. Raychel looked at her watch.

"I have to get something from Professor Snape." And she walked off. Draco just shook his head and began to converse with Crabbe and Goyle. He obviously didn't realize that it was after hours or just didn't are.

She stalked through the corridors leading to Snape's office, carefully not making a sound with her shoes and to stick close to walls. Finally she walked by Snape's office and stood nearby.

She took a risk and glanced into the room to see George doing lines. She waited for about ten minutes and then she heard the shuffling of papers and the scraping of a chair on the floor. Then Snape saw George to the door, and Raychel hid behind a tapestry. Then Snape had shut the door to his office, and Raychel walked out from behind the tapestry. George saw her and smiled, beckoning her toward him.

"You hungry?" he asked, a devilish smile playing on his lips.

"Just a little bit, why?" Raychel had inquired, wondering what he had up his sleeve this time.

He pulled out an old piece of parchment and looked at her meaningfully. "This is our little secret, okay?" Raychel nodded and he whispered the word, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." While tapping the parchment with his wand. Lines spread out like webs all over the parchment.

"It's a map of the entire school and everyone who's in it." He whispered mischievously and sure enough she saw two dots labeled George Weasley and Raychel Garretson. "Come on." He said and he put his arm around her shoulder guiding her long the corridor until they eventually reached a painting of a bowl of fruit. George told her to watch closely as he reached out a finger and tickled the pear. Raychel was about to comment about how incredibly stupid that was when a door handle appeared. She looked at George appraisingly, still unsure of what to find behind it.

When he pushed open the door, Raychel saw a bunch of little creatures walking around and working, and five long tables. "We're in the kitchen he whispered in her ear. Think of anything you want to eat. The house elves are always obliging."

"Hmm," Raychel thought then said, "Mint chocolate chip ice cream."

"Good choice. And I'll have strawberry." He steered her by grabbing her arm to the nearest elf and asked them for ice cream.

Almost instantly, an elf brought it to them in cones. Both friends thanked them and they walked out. George checked the map. I'll walk you back to your common room." They licked their ice creams happily talking. Then Raychel said to George, "We should all have these excursions more often. They're fun and they end in ice cream."

"Definitely. Just don't tell ickle Ronniekins about this. He'll never stop bothering me."

"You got it." They had reached the wall that concealed the Slytherin common room. "Thanks for the trip for ice cream. Good night George."

"Nighty night, Raych."

Raychel snarked down the rest of her ice cream cone. If Draco was in the common room, he'd find it pretty unbelievable that Snape gave her ice cream.

**Review please! I know the story is slow, especially with Deathly Hallows out, but if you've read it, please review.**


	20. The Writing on the Wall

**I do not own Harry Potter. J.K Rowling does. I own original characters that were not in the books.**

It was a week later that Harry and Ron had to serve their detentions. During the morning, Harry had to go to Quidditch practice. Oliver Wood, the captain, had them hitting it off early. He was set on winning.

Draco wasn't at breakfast which made things so much easier to slip away to Ron and Hermione. They had a napkin wrapped around toast; they were bringing it for Harry, assuming practice was over.

They took seats in the stands, where Ron and Hermione's fellow Gryffindor Colin Creevey was taking pictures like mad. He was such a mousy little boy but was quite adorable.

While watching the red blurs that were the Gryffindors zoom throughout the air was entertaining. But then, a gaggle of green clad people were walking to the pitch. The three friends knew it was trouble and gave meaningful glances at each other and began to hurry to the field as well.

It turned out Draco was the new seeker for Raychel's house. He was badmouthing the Gryffindor team, and their brooms. It turned out, Mr. Malfoy bought the entire team Nimbus 2001's; the newest and most expensive racing broom on the market…not to mention the fastest.

Draco was doing the normal flaunting, and trash talking. Hermione got sick of listening to his garbage. While Hermione gave him a piece of her mind, Ron told Raychel to not blow her cover and yell at him too, because she had looked like she was about to. Then, Malfoy called Hermione a Mudblood again, and Raychel was pushed back by Ron as he aimed a spell at Malfoy with the wand that broke during his crash into the Whomping Willow.

Ron's spell backfired and he got it full force into his stomach. He was on all four and began to heave. All of a sudden, a ton of slugs spilled out of his mouth. Raychel was kneeling right next to him, patting his back as he spewed up more. Hermione and Harry were just as quickly at his side.

"Ron, are you okay?" Hermione asked with much concern.

"You guys, take him to Hagrid's. It's nearest. I'm going to have a word with Malfoy. I told him to stop calling Hermione that—that disrespectful and vulgar name." Raychel told Hermione and Harry.

"When did you tell him that?" Harry offered inquisitively.

"Last time you guys were on break, and he had called her that. He--" Raychel looked disgusted by what she then said, "He just said he did it, like it was no big deal, like he was proud of what he had done."

"That bloody bas—"and Ron hurled up more slimy slugs.

Raychel waited until her friends were down the hill on their way to Hagrid's. Then she walked to Draco and patiently waited for him to stand up. Looking at her serious face, he tried to do that as quickly as possible. "Draco, can you come here for a second?" She asked sweetly, using her voice as a guise so the other Slytherin Quidditch players would think nothing of it. They walked to the Slytherin locker room, and Raychel made sure they were not within earshot of anyone.

Raychel didn't say anything right away. She wanted to think of what she would say and how she would say it so she would not blow her cover.

"Draco," she said in an obviously impatient and strained voice, "I told you I _hate_ when you use that term. You make it harder for me too. If I am supposed to be their friend or pretend to be, I'm supposed to defend them. If I just stand there, mouth gaping like a fish, I lose credibility."

Her voice was raised but steady, anger etched in her words. Hopefully Draco would sense the anger at him for making it difficult for her.

"Okay. Sorry," he said, not too sincerely. "I just got in the mood-"Draco started.

"The mood to make fun of Muggleborns?!" Raychel leaned against the wall of the locker room. "I know that I only pretend, but I hate when people use that term, I really do. I know I can't control your life or what you do or say, but never use that word around me or to Hermione." She sighed. "I wish you'd never use it at all, but that's expecting way too much." She walked away towards Hagrid's hut, leaving Draco to walk dumbfounded, back to the Quidditch pitch.

It turned out that her friends had left Hagrid's hut but Raychel stood a little while to visit with Hagrid.

The following Sunday morning was spent in the library for Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Raychel. He told them about a phantom voice that he heard, but Lockhart could not. Also Harry told them that they all had a different event for Halloween night. They would be going to Sir Nicholas' death day party.

Halloween came quickly and the foursome was none too excited, but a promise was a promise.

There was not much to do there, and it wasn't very eventful. The biggest thing that happened was Hermione aiding Peeve's in causing the ghost Moaning Myrtle to float away weeping. Also a Sir Patrick came in bringing in some "life" to the party with his Headless Hunt.

They decided to leave after that because their stomachs commanded them to. Along the way there, Harry suddenly exclaimed, "I hear it again! Don't you three hear it?" And without notice, Harry sprinted up the corridor, and his four friends trailed behind him.

This continued up staircases until they Harry ran back into a corridor. Finally he said, "I've lost it. But I swear it was the same voice I heard while I was in detention." He paused than said, "What is that?" Harry pointed up at the wall in the direction they were facing. They walked to it and saw a crude message in what looked like blood. It was a warning to all Muggleborns and Mrs. Norris hanging from her tail, looking like a plush toy.

"Harry, we should leave." Raychel said quietly.

"Yeah, this isn't a place we should be caught being in by ourselves." And without further ado, a crowd from the Halloween feast began piling in from all directions. Raychel, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were in the middle under the board-stiff cat and the message in blood.

All of the chatter from the crowd died down as they caught sight of the four friends. Draco Malfoy stood out and said, "All you Mudbloods better beware." Raychel looked up and saw that he was staring at Hermione, and then he averted his gaze to Raychel's face, and stopped smiling. He had said the word in front of her once again.

"What is the meaning of the traffic," came Filch's wheezy voice.

He scanned the students, and then looked down, cursing at a lot of water on the ground, which none of the four friends had noticed before. Then Filch's eyes came into contact with his beloved cat hanging from a sconce, and for a second Hermione feared his eyes would pop out.

Filch turned to Harry and began to screech at him until other teachers, Snape, McGonagall, and Dumbledore for example, came over.

"What is going on?" Dumbledore asked sternly, bright blue eyes scanning the scene before him. His eyes turned to the four people in the middle of it all.

"Potter's killed my cat, Headmaster. He did it because—because he knows I'm a squib. He saw my Kwikspell letter!"

"A—What?" Harry stammered out.

Dumbledore took Mrs. Norris down from the sconce and looked at the four students that were caught in the middle. "Minerva, come with me," and then Dumbledore's blue eyes met Raychel's, and then he said, "Severus, you as well."

Snape had motioned for Raychel to walk beside him as they made their way to the nearest office, which happened to be Lockhart's.

"What were you doing with them?" and he jerked his head in the Gryffindor trio's direction.

"We, er, we were at Sir Nicholas' Death day party. He invited us, you see." Raychel said hoping to Merlin he'd believe her. Sometimes the truth was just so unlikely.

Lockhart was just walking out and saw Dumbledore and exclaimed jovially that he was about to see what was going on, and Lockhart turned around and bowed them into his quarters.

Lockhart began to go on about what had killed Mrs. Norris. Dumbledore interviewed the four friends after concluding that Mrs. Norris was petrified and curable, but the reasoning was unknown. He then concluded to Filch, more so than anyone else that she was curable when Professor Sprout made a potion with Mandrakes. Snape was so intent on getting the Gryffindors out of trouble and keeping Raychel out. "I'm positive Miss Garretson had nothing to do with it, and I vouch for her to not be placed into detention. For all I know, they _dragged_ her along."

The Gryffindors all looked indignant and Ron was about to say something, most likely rude, but Hermione stepped hard on his foot. McGonagall said disbelievingly, "Be serious now, Severus. They may only be second years, but they all have minds of their own and I'm sure Miss Garretson wasn't forced or under duress!"

"She will be well taken care of Argus. I'd like you all to return to your houses with your Head Advisor please.

On the way to the Slytherin dungeon, Snape began to speak to Raychel. "Raychel, I am not your parent nor can I control what you do, but you seem responsible and it's obvious you're a smart individual." He paused and Raychel thanked him for the compliment. "But," he went on, "I do not think it wise to hang around those three. They get into all sorts of trouble, as you saw last year when they went through a door that Dumbledore specifically said not to in the beginning of the year. You could have been seriously injured. Don't put yourself into a position where you will have trouble." Snape said this while looking straight ahead as they walked.

"I will keep what you say in mind sir."

While Harry, Hermione, and Ron traveled in the wake of Professor McGonagall, she began to speak.

"I know of you three being friends with Miss Garretson. She is undeniably a great student…But I warn you, she is also good friends with Mr. Malfoy. I just…"She paused once more, "Just make sure you don't let something slip to her that she might accidentally let slip to Mr. Malfoy, as you don't seem to get along with him."

The three of them just looked at each other. Ron rolled his eyes as if to say, "Teacher's think they know everything." And they all just nodded their heads to appease her.

Draco waited in the common room. Pansy had finally stopped talking to him. He really couldn't be bothered with her, but she was always there, whenever he turned around. Crabbe and Goyle walked off to the dormitories. How could Raychel ditch going to the feast hanging with _those_ three. _She had better not be doing this because I called Granger a Mudblood._

The door opened and Draco heard the familiar voice of Professor Snape, his Godfather. This wasn't a well known fact, but it wasn't good if people knew because they could accuse him of showing favoritism. Outside of school, he called him Uncle Severus, but he didn't see him all too much to begin with outside of school.

"Good night, Miss Garretson." Snape bade the person Draco was waiting for.

Raychel walked in oblivious to Draco in the emerald arm chair and walked to her favorite couch and collapsed upon it, her eyes closed.

"Happy Halloween," Draco said, somewhat lamely, but she opened her eyes in shock.

"Likewise." She said nonchalantly. Raychel knew what was coming.

"Why were you with them?" Draco demanded, but Raychel had already planned a lie for the moment he would ask her about it.

"I didn't _go_ with them, but one day I was walking in a corridor coming here from the library, and the Bloody Baron was going the same direction, not too far from me. Sir Nicholas popped out of a wall and began t converse with the Baron until he noticed I was there as well, and while he invited the Baron, he invited me as well. It turns out, Ha—"Raychel decided she would have to stick to surnames to sound really convincing, "Potter, Weasley and Granger were going to be there as well."

Draco seemed to think about what she said, and Raychel closed her eyes, and nearly dozed off. "That sucks," he said.

"What sucks?" Raychel asked sleepily.

"It's obvious you don't really like them, but you always end up with them." He said thoughtfully.

"I guess." They were both quiet for a little bit, Raychel thinking of how Draco, an intelligent person was so blind to see her true allegiance. Draco thought of ways to keep Raychel from the three Gryffindors he loathed most.

Raychel ended up actually dozing off, and Draco walked over to wake her up. They both trudged to the separate dormitories.

In the Gryffindor tower, Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way to their dormitories, not speaking to anyone along the way. They all needed to speak about this as soon as they could get together.

**Hope you enjoyed. Please review and what not. It would be swell if you did!**


	21. The Best Laid Plans

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. J.K Rowling owns it, and I own characters not in the book.**

The next morning Ron, Hermione, and Harry did not get to meet up with Raychel. During Raychel's potions class, she and George discussed the events from the previous night. Raychel however left out the part where Harry heard voices. That isn't the sort of thing you disclose to people without permission from the person themselves.

George told Raychel that Ginny was very shaken up about Mrs. Norris' petrifaction. Apparently she was a cat lover. Raychel made a mental note to give her a hug when she next saw her.

George, Fred, and Lee walked out with Raychel to lunch. Raychel wasn't hungry and said she was going to the library. They told her to wait while they grabbed a piece of food to eat while walking to the library. On the way to the library, Raychel told the others what she had told George.

Herbology for the Gryffindors that morning was the usual with the Hufflepuffs. They were still working with the Mandrakes. People threw Harry, Hermione, and Ron furtive glances often, and if eye contact was made, the Hufflepuff would quickly avert their gaze back upon their plant.

The bell for the end of class was long awaited by the trio. They could take time washing the earth off of them because break was next. While crossing the courtyard they passed Draco Malfoy making his way along with his goons to his regular spot in the courtyard.

"Attack any kittens lately Potter?" Draco taunted.

Harry knew it would be something pointless to respond or deny so instead he insulted Malfoy.

"Malfoy, you are a brainless git." There was nothing more that could come to Harry's mind and he was weary from Herbology and he really wanted to wash up. He would insult Malfoy on a day that his heart was in it.

Raychel talked to her friends in the library, but the feeling of concern for Harry was always somewhere on her mind.

"Just our luck though," Fred said with a mischievous grin.

All though the twins usually read one another's mind, George looked puzzled and curious along with Lee and Raychel.

"Seriously, I'm not even being sarcastic. With Mrs. Norris out of action, we have one less thing to worry about when we prowl around at night." Said Fred, still grinning.

It looked as if light had dawned upon George's face, and he began to grin like his brother, and then exclaimed in a low whisper so as to not attract any unwanted attention from Madam Pince, "Let's explore tonight!" He looked at Raychel, Lee, and Fred in turn with excitement.

It was all agreed upon that some nighttime wandering was in store. Raychel reminded them of one thing. "We have to make sure of one thing though. We _cannot_ be caught by Filch. With Mrs. Norris gone, he's going to be in some foul mood. If we're caught by him, he'll try to get us all expelled."

They all nodded in agreement but then Lee said with confidence, "We have the Marauder's Map, I doubt we need to worry." They all wore similar mischievous grins, and began to walk out of the library.

It was agreed that they were probably going to venture somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, but not too far. Apparently, the twins voyaged somewhere in too deep some time previously and had a run in with angry Bowtruckles.

They would meet at about 9 o' clock outside the Slytherin common room because she did not have a map to prevent herself from being seen. Her only problem would be Draco.

She ate and conversed with fellow Slytherins, and then got up to leave for the library. She walked to the table that her and her three friends from Gryffindor usually shared. That is where they began to deeply discuss last night's events. Why was Harry hearing a voice from an unknown source? Why was Mrs. Norris Petrified? Before eight o' clock, the trio said good night to Raychel.

They made their way up to their tower and the Ron spoke up, "Do you think anything else is going to happen? To anyone else?"

His other two friends shrugged their shoulders. He then continued. "Who do you think the 'Heir of Slytherin' is?"

"I have a few ideas…" said Harry.

Hermione said the password and the portrait of the Fat Lady swung forward. There was a crowd gathered near the entrance, where the bulletin board is.

"They've started a Dueling Club!" cried Seamus.

Whispers went through the crowd. "Who do you think is going to teach us how to duel? Flitwick? McGonagall?" pondered Dean Thomas aloud.

"I hope it's Lockhart!" cried Parvati Patil from right of Hermione. To Ron and Harry's dismay, Hermione shook her head and wholeheartedly agreed.

Ron looked at Harry and pretended to be sick, looking very much like he did the day he vomited slugs.

The three friends that just entered positioned themselves in chairs adjacent to each other. The best and most comfortable ones near the hearth were taken, so they obliged to ones farther away. After an hour of writing essays and random chatter, a different trio of friends made their way down from the boy's dormitory. Fred led the way, George following and Lee taking the caboose. Fred had a piece of parchment in his hand, Harry noticed, but thought nothing of it. He returned to his essay as the twins and Lee made their way out of the common room.

A little way down from the portrait of the Fat Lady, Fred took out his wand, and said, _"I solemnly swear I am up to no good"_ The blueprints of the school appeared upon the parchment. Making their way according to the map, they went to the Slytherin common room.

"Draco. I've told you about ten times already. Harry did _not_ attack the bloody cat. I was _there._ I—"

"About that," Draco cut in. "You were supposed to be at the feast with us."

"I was invited by Sir Nicholas because apparently more than a few centuries of death is something you celebrate. I figured I would just show up or something. I've told you _that_ about a hundred times already. Can't you just be happy with that!?"

Draco laughed at her exasperation and indignation and gave his signature smirk. "No."

Raychel realized the lack of seriousness in his tone and could not help but smile along with him. _It's so funny talking to the person that hates my best friends and vice versa. Even weirder seeing a different side of who they hate._ Raychel thought.

"What time is it?" Draco asked interrupting her thoughts.

"It's almost 9." Draco gave an exaggerated yawn and announced out loud that he was going to bed.

"Goodnight _Draco_," Pansy Parkinson crooned her eyes on Draco. He just shook his head.

Raychel had on a smirk similar to the one Draco wore moments before. "Need your beauty sleep?"

Draco shot back a sarcastic smile and then said, "Well, you acknowledge my beauty so I have nothing to say back but good night." Raychel just shook her head and began to pack up her stuff. She walked quickly to her dorm and put her stuff away and grabbed her cloak. She kept it folded over her arm so as to not have it conspicuous. While making her way to the door, she nodded to some Slytherin's that she knew from different years. At the most opportune moment, she slipped outside of her common room, and walked quickly down the corridor. When she was about to turn, George jumped in front of her and attempted to frighten her. The attempt was golden and she jumped at least a foot an a half of the ground.

George just laughed, the others joining in. Raychel just rolled her eyes at the trite prank. George then said, "I knew you were coming," and then pulled her into a friendly hug, as if making amends for startling her so. They all hurriedly looked at the Marauder's Map and began their voyage towards the doors and out to the Forbidden Forest.

In the Gryffindor tower, the three friends talked for a little more then made their way to bed.

In the Slytherin Dungeon, Draco Malfoy lay in his four poster bed with his emerald colored curtains shut about him. He had his eyes wide open, just staring at the awning of the same rich green color. He wanted to know who attacked the cat. _Potter can in no way be the heir of Slytherin. The heir would have to be a Slytherin…_Raychel!_ She was with him and is a Slytherin…Only she said her parents were not Slytherins as well. It is possible though…_ Thoughts of similar roots carried him into sleep. Meanwhile, Raychel, Lee and the twins decided to not go into the forest, especially after what had happened to Harry there last year. Instead, they took a path out of a statue of a one-eyed witch into what Raychel found was the cellar of Honeyduke's in a nearby wizarding village, Hogsmeade.

When they hit a wooden trapdoor above them, George told Raychel while Fred and Lee hoisted it upwards, "We found this in our first year."

"What're we going to do? It's past ten, everything will be closed. So we'd be breaking _out_ of a closed store." Raychel offered.

The thud of the trapdoor was the result of Fred and Lee letting it drop.

"She's right," Lee told to Fred.

"Well, Forbidden Forest is too dangerous, and if we wanted to go to the Three Broomsticks, we should have gone earlier..." He sighed.

"What if we just sit by the lake or something and kill time? Otherwise the only sensible thing to do is go back to dorms." Raychel then added slyly, "We could also set up prank outside of the Great Hall for the first person to enter it or something."

The boys smiled but then Fred said, "But the Great Hall is always swarming with ghosts or teachers or Filch."

"A diversion maybe…" George said.

"Fireworks in a corridor?" Lee offered his roguish grin still in place.

"We have some in our trunks." Said the twins in unison.

"But we have to split up," Raychel piped up. "If we all are at the area of diversion, one or all of us is bound to get caught. Give me the fireworks." Raychel said simply.

The three boys looked at her in both an incredulous and admiring way.

"You're going to grow up to be a great person," Said Fred patting her on the back.

"So young and pulling pranks already," George put in as well.

"You're one of us now," said Lee laughing.

"Just a Slytherin though," Raychel smiled as they walked back from the trap door back to the witch.

"_Lumos_" said Lee and he held his wand aloft so the map could be seen. The floor was clear and they exited out.

After getting to the Gryffindor tower, Raychel stood at the bottom of the stairs and kept a watch out with Lee as the twins hurried up to their dorm and back.

They handed a handful of fireworks to Raychel. "I'll set of one outside of the library, then one outside of the Trophy Room. Then I'll get to my common room and go to sleep so I can watch what happens to the first person to enter the Great Hall."

"Take the map," said George looking a little bit concerned. "You'll need it more than we will."

Raychel promptly refused, "You guys are going to be in the Great Hall, someone could go there or return at any time."

"No" all three boys said and gave her a playful shove in the direction of the library. "Good luck" George bade her.

"You all as well."

Raychel made her way to the library. She had to dodge a few ghosts, and on one floor, she had to dodge an agitated and irate looking Filch. She finally made it to the library and set off half of the fireworks she had. She ran as soon as she set them and hid behind a tapestry as she looked at her map. Filch made his way to his scene. Raychel had to admire the loudness of the fireworks and how they pierced the silence. She looked at the Great Hall. George, Lee, and Fred were waiting in a corner, behind something no doubt. The Grey Lady's dot on the map was moving. There were only two other ghosts in the Great Hall. No living people which could most definitely work to their advantage. When Raychel saw that Filch was nearly on that floor, she ran to the Trophy room. She set off the last of the rockets. Then she made her way as quick as she could back to the common room not really having to dodge any other person, living or dead. She made it back to her four poster bed and quietly and quickly changed into her pajama pants and shirt. She closed her curtains and lit her wand under her covers watching the twins and Lee, the Library, and the Trophy room. The other ghosts drifted out of the Great Hall, and Filch was assisted by Lockhart as well as Snape. The Trophy Room was surrounded by dots labeled Peeves, McGonagall, Sinistra, and the Bloody Baron, who was no doubt there to keep Peeves in check. She checked the Great Hall again, and saw that they were making their way back to their common room. When they made it back to their dorm, she let her eyes roam over the other page. Harry and Ron were in their dormitory as well, and Hermione and Ginny in the girl's tower.

She looked at the Slytherin dungeon and saw that the dot Draco Malfoy was in his room.

She whispered, "_Mischief managed"_ and the parchment was nothing more than parchment to the eye, and she placed that and her wand on the nightstand. Then she fell into sleep.

**Hope you liked it. Please review! No one ever does, but I'm continuing with this story until I finish it. So if you read it please take a few moments to review…**


	22. Misunderstandings

**I do not own Harry Potter; J.K. Rowling does. I own characters not in the book, such as Raychel.**

That morning, Draco woke up early. He had many dreams that night, all of which he found who the heir of Slytherin was and where the Chamber or Secrets was. The Chamber of Secrets became the talk of the school as of late. He got out of his bed and he was not surprised to see that Crabbe and Goyle were sleeping still.

His feet beat down the semi-familiar path to Professor Snape's office. _I hope he is awake, _thought Draco. When he got to the door, he knocked.

"Enter," Snape said tersely, no sign of sleep in his voice.

Draco pushed open the door and shut it behind him. With the door shut formalities may be dropped and neither male need to watch what they say.

"Uncle Severus, I need to know something." Draco pushed urgently.

Before speaking Snape looked at the door and did a nonverbal spell making the door Imperturbable. "What is it?" Snape asked, his voice devoid of any briskness it held before. He knew this boy since he was born, after all.

"What and where is the Chamber of Secrets!?" Draco exclaimed as if he were bursting to say that from the start.

"The castle has been searched many times, but no clue or intimation has ever given way to if the Chamber even exists." Draco nodded for him to continue further. "Long ago, Slytherin got into a dispute with the rest of the founders. He wanted the entire school to be of only pure blooded wizards. He was said to have made this Chamber, but like I said, the school has been searched many times since Slytherin had died. But then again, there are many secrets this school most likely holds…Why are you up this early anyway?" Snape inquired.

"I couldn't sleep too well." Draco did not go into his possibly but most likely not prophetic dreams. "What time is it, anyway?"

"6:51." Snape said, bemused by the shocked expression Draco wore momentarily.

"I didn't realize…Why were _you_ up?" Draco shot back.

"I was just thinking." Snape did not go on nor did Draco push.

"Who do you think the heir of Slytherin is?" Draco asked.

"I'm not sure…Obviously the person is distant kin of Salazar Slytherin though. Shall we go to breakfast?" Snape asked.

Draco's stomach rumbled and answered for him, and they made their way slowly to the Great Hall.

Raychel woke up around 6:30 and quickly got ready. She only hoped that the twins and Lee were up so they could see the effects of whatever it was that they did last night. She would wait outside the Great Hall so that way she could see what happens.

She left the common room at 6:55. She saw George, Lee, and Fred walking down the staircase and she made her way to them as Professor Snape and Draco Malfoy were coming out of a different nearby corridor. Raychel nodded at them both as they passed each other and she walked to the other three. The timing could have not been more perfect.

The four began to saunter towards the Great Hall just as Draco and Snape walked in. The three boys had bewitched things to move as someone entered, and it now was a double play. A bucket of water poured itself upon the Slytherin Head and student then feathers drifted down upon them. The water had made the feathers adhere to them.

"Follow my lead," George instructed.

"Are you okay professor? I'll clean you up." George said, like a father to a young boy who spilled his milk.

Professor Snape snapped back and said, "No, Weasley! I am a trained wizard and I can do this myself…_Evanesco!_ And the feathers disappeared and then he did a spell with his wand and dried the water from him and Draco.

"Are you sure you're okay, Professor?" Raychel asked sweetly.

"Yes, Miss Garretson." Snape said in a nicer tone than the one he was using towards the George.

"Come on, Raychel," and Draco nodded toward the Slytherin table.

"How about you, are you okay?" Raychel said, now trying to bite back her laughter.

"It isn't funny, do you know who did this?!" Draco demanded.

"Probably Peeves. Oh, look! Fried eggs and bacon, yes!" Raychel exclaimed. She was being a tad more hyper than usual. Her mornings never started out _that_ good.

"Why did you walk over to them," Draco eyed the three Gryffindors she had aided in setting up what she had just witnessed.

"They waved me over, and you know what I have to do…"

Raychel met up with Harry, Hermione, and Ron after dinner in the library as usual. She told them about the prank, but George and Fred and Lee had already informed them on the morning entertainment. Then they talked about the Dueling Club which Raychel had no idea about. She must have missed looking at the bulletin board. It was later that night, in an hour actually.

Forty five minutes later, they all departed to put their books away and then would make their way to the Great Hall for the Dueling Club.

It turns out Lockhart and Snape would be teaching how to duel.

Draco noted in his mind, _if he wanted, Uncle Severus could turn Lockhart into a fine powder…and that isn't using potions…_ Draco smiled at his own thoughts, and Raychel nudged him in the ribs with her elbow, wondering what he found so amusing.

Lockhart instructed them to get into pairs after Snape hexed him in a "pretend" duel.

Raychel was paired with Pansy Parkinson…_This should be fun_. This thought was shared by Draco, Raychel, Harry, and Hermione. Draco and Harry made a pair as was Hermione and Millicent Bulstrode. Raychel felt sorry for Hermione because Millicent was not exactly petite and quite mean looking. Despite her looks though, she was nice to Raychel…but still, she was strong.

They began to practice. Nobody was practicing disarming. Hexes flew from all directions. Pansy had attempted to do a Full Body Bind on Raychel but it hit Blaise Zabini instead. Raychel hit Pansy with a Tripping Jinx and Pansy fell. Before any retaliation could be made, Lockhart tried to stop all duels.

He decided it would be nicer if one pair went up for example. The coupling of Harry and Draco were the chosen ones. Draco had shot a snake out of his wand that slowly slithered towards Harry. Raychel, Hermione, and Ron had taken a gulp of air. This could not mean anything good.

Harry threw a spell at it which only made it more agitated. Instead of facing Harry, it was now facing Justin Finch-Fletchley, a Hufflepuff second year.

Harry acted upon impulse and walked toward the snake.

Harry's P.O.V

_It's going to attack him. I have to do something. If I don't act now it will attack him!_

_"_Get away from him! Get away _now!_"

The snake began to slither away from Justin. _Wow, it listened! What a coincidence._

"What do you think you're playing at?!" Screamed Justin.

_You would think he would be more grateful. I just saved his damn life. Hermione isn't smiling nor is Ron. Snape has more confusion in his eyes then hatred and Raychel looks dazed. Everyone is whispering…_

End of Harry's P.O.V

Murmurs were all that filled Great Hall. Ron went to pull Harry off the table he stood upon and Hermione sought out Raychel. They left the Great Hall and took Harry to an empty classroom.

"Why didn't you tell us you were a _Parselmouth_?!" Ron demanded.

"A—a what?"

"A Parselmouth is someone who speaks Parseltongue—"Raychel saw that Hermione was going about this in a textbook fashion.

"It means you can speak to snakes, Harry." Raychel said flatly.

"Well, I never really knew. I, well I set a boa constrictor on Dudley once. But it was sort of funny." Seeing that on a different day that might have been funny, he went on after not seeing them smile to the week humor. "It was on accident I swear. It didn't hurt him, but it said it never saw Brazil."

Hermione let herself collapse into a chair. "Harry, Salazar Slytherin was famous for his ability to speak to snakes."

"Yeah, everyone is going to think you're…like…his great great great great great great great great—"Raychel cut Ron off.

"They're going to think _you're _the heir of Slytherin. The fact that we were right in front of Mrs. Norris that night and what was written will not help you either Harry…"

The next few weeks were not easy whatsoever. Draco was incessantly asking Raychel about Harry being the heir of Slytherin. Every time Raychel said it wasn't possible, he'd smirk and agree, making the questions he asked entirely pointless.

Harry was obsessing over wanting to tell Justin what really happened. Ron, Hermione and Raychel thought it would be fruitless, but Harry was a tiny bit stubborn at times.

Harry had a Quidditch match. It was a grueling match, especially for Harry who was being targeted by one Bludger. He was doing a fantastic job of dodging it until he stood still for a moment too long and the Bludger pelted him full force in the arm. He continued until the snitch was caught, a short while later. He collapsed on the ground. Hermione and Ron ran to him. Raychel would of if Draco had not held her back.

"Don't worry."

Raychel; responded irately, "If you want them to trust me, I have to show concern." Inside Raychel was freaking out that she couldn't run to her friend's aide.

"You'll see him in the hospital wing after dinner."

"With that, Raychel was carried by the current of Slytherins making their way to the Great Hall for supper.


	23. Lack of Control

**I do not own Harry Potter or the song "Animal I Have Become". If I owned both, I wouldn't be broke.**

A week later, Ginny stood in her dormitory with a little black book; it was open and she was scribbling in it furiously. During the week Harry was in the hospital for part of it. There was another attack, and it was Colin. Everyone was convinced this was Harry's way getting Colin to stop annoying him.

_Tom, I'm still so confused. Ron won't tell me, he was a right prat about it…Hermione just said nothing can be explained…that I saw it like it was…He can speak to snakes!_

_**Your friend Hermione is quite right. What is there to say? What did the snake do after he talked to it?**_

_It just stopped moving, and sat there, patiently almost._

_**Then it isn't a problem then, right?**_

_No, I guess not. But there is still the fact that I can't remember what I've been doing. For so long it feels like I just black out, and I don't know what I've been doing. I don't even remember where _I_ was when Colin was attacked. Percy says I look sick and he's going to write Mum. I tell him that I am okay, but I don't really feel that way._

_**Just sleep it off, it always helps. What time is it?**_

_It is about to be 9:30._

_**Get some rest, I'll be here tomorrow, you know that.**_

_Okay, bye Tom._

Ginny went to sleep, which was fitful throughout the night, as it has been since she came to school. When she woke up next morning she just told herself she was homesick. The sun was out, but winters approach was made known with the chilling breezes that often swept into the castle.

After breakfast, Ginny felt like talking to Tom again. There was so much on her mind, but there was no one to let it out to properly who would not deem her absolutely insane.

Ginny put the book on her pillow as she lay on her stomach on her four poster bed to begin writing to Tom, but as soon as she opened the old black book, she was no longer herself.

_I can't escape this hell_

_So many times I've tried_

_But I'm still caged inside_

_Somebody get me through this nightmare,_

_I can't control myself._

_So what if you can see_

_The darker side of me_

_No one will ever change this animal I have become_

_Help me believe _

_It's not the real me._

_Somebody help change this animal…_

Everybody was enjoying one of the few tolerable weathered weekends until after the New Year outdoors. Nerves were on end, especially with the famous Harry Potter speaking to a snake right in public only a week ago. Justin Flinch-Fletchley spent his time with other Hufflepuffs, evading Harry Potter. Today they were out by the lake.

Harry spotted Justin and bee-lined straight to him, but other Hufflepuffs alerted Justin and they themselves made a bee line to the door. Harry realized his attempt to talk to Justin was futile.

"Harry don't worry, you'll get to tell him," Raychel consoled.

"I don't see why you're wasting your time," said Ron with an air of superiority, "They're so dumb, they probably think you're going to tackle Justin into the lake or something."

Raychel sniggered and Hermione just scoffed. "Let's go visit Hagrid, "She said. The others nodded fervently and they went to his hut.

Draco Malfoy and some other Slytherins were in the courtyard talking—or Draco was speaking, and others were listening to a memoir of his past, Pansy Parkinson closest to him, laughing at little puns that were not funny. A lot of the Ravenclaws were in the library or common room, while the latter's Quidditch team was practicing. The people in and out of the castle were too occupied to notice young Ginny Weasley walking with a purpose, eyes blank.

_I must stop those roosters from crowing. I must stop them. I must stop those roosters from crowing._

Ginny walked on, out of the doors. She walked towards the lake area, her feet controlling her body. A Hufflepuff in her year greeted her, but she did not hear or respond, just walked on, as did the Hufflepuff, only he was slightly baffled by her comportment.

She walked into a patch of woods near the lake's edge, and no one saw. She was not going to venture deep, but take a quicker way to the chicken coop.

_I can't escape myself_

_So many times I've lied_

_But there's still rage inside_

_Somebody get me through this nightmare _

_I can't control myself._

Finally Ginny made it to the chicken coop. The chickens were in one hut and the roosters were in another. If one were looking at her, they would see the red gleam that shone in her eye, but they would have to be paying close attention, for it was brief.

She walked into the tiny hut that housed the roosters. Since her last "visit" there, not much has changed, except that there are three more roosters than last time. Hagrid must have brought in more, because of the fate of the last bunch.

_Kill the roosters. I must kill them. _

Ginny grabbed her wand and waved it. The roosters were now quieted. Surely if she were in the right state of mind, she would not have know this spell, nor would she do what she was about to do.

She took hold of the nearest rooster, and held it in her hands. To her, it felt like parchment…so light. Then she used a grip so hard around its neck, that birds small bones cracked at once and the bird went limp in her hold.

_So what if you can see_

_The darker side of me_

_No one can ever change_

_This animal I have become_

_Help me believe _

_It's not the real me_

_Somebody help me change this animal_

_Somebody help me through this nightmare_

_I can't control myself_

_Somebody wake me from this nightmare_

_I can't escape this hell_

The bell rang for lunch at noon, and by that time, all of the roosters had been killed and Ginny had staggered into her bed, just as she had when she was about to write to Tom. Without further ado, she collapsed onto her bed.

Harry, Hermione, Raychel, and Ron left Hagrid's hut to go and eat. Hagrid was going to do his usual rounds on the grounds and check all of the animals. He had also wanted to make sure that no Flesh-Eating Slug had gotten into his garden. Now that Halloween is over, he was growing Christmas trees. He made his way to the chicken coop, and was a bit curious why the roosters were not clucking like the chickens were. He peered into the coop and saw what he hoped would not happen.

"Not _again_. Damn. If this happens again, I'm going ter have ter bring this up ter Dumbledore." Hagrid muttered to himself. He began to clear out the carcasses of the roosters. "I guess I'll go and visit Aragog with these. Not much help they'll be doing me this way." And Hagrid stalked off into the Forbidden Forest.

Ginny woke up at about four o'clock. She went to the loo and looked at herself in the mirror as she entered. There were feathers all over her. This was not the first time this happened to her, but once again, why they were there was a mystery. _What have I been _doing_, for Merlin's sake?" _Ginny asked aloud.

The mirror responded back, "It looks like your comforter has a tear in it,"

Ginny didn't respond or pay attention to the mirror, and washed up. Then she made her way to dinner.

"You look like Hell!" exclaimed Fred.

"Have you been sleeping lately?" George asked Ginny with concern.

"Yeah…"

After dinner, Hermione took control of the conversation in the library.

"Raychel, try to see if you can get anything out of Malfoy about whether or not he knows or _is_ the Heir of Slytherin." Raychel nodded. "Tell us tomorrow what you find out. If he says nothing, I have a way that might work, to get out any information from him that he might withhold."

"No problem, but I doubt he is. He'd be gloating about it…"

"I don't know who it is, Rayche…" Draco said, obviously frustrated with his lack of answer for her question. Raychel knew he was being truthful.

Then she was taken back by his question. "Is it you? Are you asking to make yourself seem less of a suspect? I mean, you were there with Potter…They think you are friends with them, so they'd cover for you!"

Raychel was thankful for the fact that no one was in the common room. It was one o' clock, but being as it isn't a school night, sometimes people are up playing a game of chess or gobstones or something. She slapped Draco across the face.

"Are you freaking kidding me?!" Raychel was annoyed. "I would _not_ attack a cat for no reason, and I do _not_ call people that are Muggle Born _Mudbloods_! You know how I feel about that. And if I were heir of Slytherin, my whole damn _family_ would be in Slytherin! I told you my mother was a Ravenclaw and my father a Gryffindor." She kept her voice in a deadly, low tone, but her annoyance was perceivable and Draco actually leaned back in his seat.

"Okay. I was—I'm sorry." He looked like he meant it.

"Apology accepted, but don't make a mistake like that again. That was ignorant. You know where I stand." Raychel said patronizingly.

"I won't Raychel…I _am_ sorry though, but you sounded just like my father." Draco said, looking at her in the eye. He looked almost weary.

Raychel tried to make light of the situation. Hoping he wouldn't take it the wrong way, she said, "He sounds like a twelve year old girl?" She cocked her head to the side, emphasizing her youth.

He smiled. "No, but that isn't the first time that a phrase like what you said has been used on me."

"Is he one of those parents who expect…perfection?" Raychel shuddered. Her parents were happy as long as she tried her hardest and didn't give up.

"No, it's more like," Draco paused, searching for the words, "Even though I am only twelve, he expects me to be this—this man that upholds the Malfoy name with nobility."

Raychel sighed, almost pitying him. "That's hard…To be so young yet have to live up to that."

Draco then chuckled, "Yeah, but my mum sort of…spoils me, if you will. She kind of balances it out…but when I'm older, my father will always hound me until I bring honor to the name.

"It's getting late…or early," It was two o' clock now, "I'm going to sleep. Goodnight, Rayche."

He got up and walked to the door that led to the Boy's Dormitories.

"Goodnight…" bade Raychel, but she stood on the couch the entire night, thinking. How can she feel pity for the kid that her friends loathe and vice versa? He seemed so...vulnerable just now it's hard to believe they were the same person. For a little bit, Raychel felt a little bit bad for him, but she ended up dozing off at around 6 in the morning. Surely in the morning she'll feel differently once she's well rested.

**Hope you liked, please review if you've read this! I hoped you liked the part with Ginny. I've never seen a fan fiction with her being possessed by Voldemort, so I decided to throw some 3DG in there for fun…**


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